Thoughts on being the gadfly in the sport sciences ointment: building the road to meta-theoretical research creation

Abstract

In this paper, the quality, position and relevance of social science research in sport science will be reviewed from a philosophical perspective. Using metaphors, such as the Socratic ‘Gadfly’, it will be argued that one of the major challenges the social science researcher faces is the paradigmatic differences in sport science and the dominance of the natural/biological science paradigm in most cases. It will be further proposed that to attempt to address that challenge and engage in new research creation, we require a critical perspective that explores meta-theoretical foundational analysis. This exploration will include examples of non-formal reasoning as a potential method of bridging the gap between the paradigms and building meta-theory of sport science. Such a union presents a challenge precisely because these paradigms differ in their methods, assumptions of what constitutes legitimate research and, perhaps most fundamentally, their assumptions regarding the very relationship of human beings to sport.

Notes

^1.Childress, Practical Reasoning in Bioethics, 4.

^2.Ibid., 5.

^3.Ibid.

^4.Oxford Dictionary, ‘Gadfly’.

^5.Mooney, ‘Commentary on Apollonius’.

^6.Plato, ‘Socrates' Defense’.

^7.Ibid.

^8. Note here that the change from ‘BC’ and ‘AD’ to ‘BCE’ and ‘CE’ in scholarly work is a reflection of academia's attempt to distance itself from the temporal notation system of one particular religion. This change was itself brought about from reflective critical social science.

^9.Kline, Why the Professor Can't Teach.

^10.Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter.

^11.Nussbaum, Not for Profit.

^12. For example, in sport working with the International Olympic Committee, which has not had the best record on social progress, do we sometimes forget we need to bring people closer together in the common search for truth? This accusation may be more familiar to some of us who have tried to make change through social criticism based on social science research in sport, such as the Olympic Games, from the outside. There are many examples of this kind of social criticism by academics, but in Canada, Dr Bruce Kidd would represent one of the most active in regard to the Olympic Games and sport.

^13.Cambridge Dictionaries Online, ‘Fly in the Ointment’.

^14.Jenkins, ‘Ecclesiastes 10:1’, 906.

^15.Norris, Practical Treatise Concerning Humility.

^16.Hoberman, ‘Sport and the Techological Image’.

^17.Ibid.

^18.Morgan, ‘Broad Internalism, Deep Conventions’.

^19.Winch, Idea of a Social Science.

^20.Winch, ‘Understanding a Primitive Society’.

^21.Ibid., 309.

^22.Ibid., 312.

^23.Ibid., 313.

^24.MacIntyre, ‘A Mistake About Causality in Social Science’, 61.

^25.Winch, ‘Understanding a Primitive Society’, 318.

^26.Ibid., 319.

^27.Ibid.

^28.Ibid., 322–3.

^29.Ibid., 323–4.

^30.Brown, Rationality.

^31.Ibid., 180–1.

^32.Ibid., 131.

^33.Ibid., 132.

^34.Ibid., 137.

^35.Ibid., 187.

^36.Ibid., 194–5.

^37.Hooker, ‘Rationality as Effective Organization’.

^38.Ibid., 113.

^39.Ibid., 119.

^40.Ibid., 136.

^41.Ibid.

^42.Ibid., 142.

^43.Ibid., 150.

^44.Ibid., 149.

^45.Ibid., 153.

^46.Ibid.

^47.Winch, ‘Understanding a Primitive Society’, 318.

^48.Rorty, Contingency,Irony and Solidarity, 51.