Staying Onside on the Inside: Men, Masculinities and the Research Process

Abstract

Purpose

To outline the kinds of problems and dilemmas which researchers might experience in professional sports settings and to highlight the way in which gender might shape those experiences.

Methodology/approach

An ethnography of professional football.

Findings

Few social researchers have managed to breach the institutional bounds of professional sport and fewer still have carried out ethnographic work within this context. Gender inevitably impacts the complexion of sporting domains and this manifests itself in everyday behaviours and sub-cultural practices. Qualitative research has the potential to uncover the nuances of individual and collective behaviours within such settings and to shed light upon the ways in which gender relations shape the contours of institutional life.

Originality/value

To situate current debate around methods within wider discussions of gender and social research and against the backdrop of theoretical shifts in the conceptualisation of masculinities.

Citation

Parker, A. (2016), "Staying Onside on the Inside: Men, Masculinities and the Research Process", Gender Identity and Research Relationships (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1042-319220160000014018