Structure and dynamics of European sports science textual contents: Analysis of ECSS abstracts (1996–2014)

Abstract

The article discusses general structure and dynamics of the sports science research content as obtained from the analysis of 21998 European College of Sport Science abstracts belonging to 12 science topics. The structural analysis showed intertwined multidisciplinary and unifying tendencies structured along horizontal (scope) and vertical (level) axes. Methodological (instrumental and mode of inquiry) integrative tendencies are dominant. Theoretical integrative tendencies are much less detectable along both horizontal and vertical axes. The dynamic analysis of written abstracts text content over the 19 years reveals the contextualizing and guiding role of thematic skeletons of each sports science topic in forming more detailed contingent research ideas and the role of the latter in stabilizing and procreating the former. This circular causality between both hierarchical levels and functioning on separate characteristic time scales is crucial for understanding how stable research traditions self-maintain and self-procreate through innovative contingencies. The structure of sports science continuously rebuilds itself through use and re-use of contingent research ideas. The thematic skeleton ensures its identity and the contingent conceptual sets its flexibility and adaptability to different research or applicative problems.

Keywords:

• Dynamical systems
• modelling
• analysis

Acknowledgements

“Amb el suport de l’Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya (INEFC) de la Generalitat de Catalunya.” We thank Marko Stefanovski for his help in preparing the abstracts for analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCiD

Robert Hristovski http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6805-2833

Notes

1. Due to a limited space of this article, these large sets of Alceste and PCA results cannot be presented in detail. The authors are at disposal to interested readers to provide them with all specific results they are interested in.

2. Some of the mentioned general themes were not present in all sports science topics among the listed first 20 concepts but were anyway close to the top of the list.

3. The stochastic behaviour on the level of primary PCs is also interesting, but it would take much more space to comment on it. That is why we constrain ourselves to comment only the level of the secondary PC level that we call the general thematic skeleton.

4. Keeping in mind that, in human affairs, the best way to predict the future is to foster it.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya.