Examining Sports, Science, and Technology Studies

• In Event: Science, Technology and Sport I

Abstract

The study of science, technology, and sports is theoretically, substantively, methodologically, and disciplinarily diverse. Incorporating the rapid development of technologies and their expanding applications in sports – from telecommunications to high performance – interdisciplinary fields such as science and technology studies (STS) and the sociology of sport are tasked with interrogating the social, cultural, historical, and economic intersections of an ever-expanding techno-scientific landscape. In this paper we’ll examine research, past and present, situated at the intersections of STS and sports studies. In particular, we’ll discuss existing and emerging themes, issues, methodological concerns and theoretical debates that have shaped the two disciplinary fields and their interactions. In addition, an examination of these important exchanges will assist in illuminating the complicated relationships between science, technologies and sporting cultures, their contemporary and historical contexts, and disciplinary futures.

Authors

• Jennifer Sterling, University of Iowa

• Mary McDonald, Georgia Institute of Technology