This study aimed to investigate if the strength of athletic identity affected the rankings (or salience hierarchy) of 6 every-day life roles among 100 elite South African Swimmers. The link between performance and athletic identity was also investigated along with an investigation of the effects of age and gender. There was found to be no interaction between athletic identity and ranking of life roles; only the athlete role was found to be significantly different between high and medium athletic identity groups. A difference was found between elite and non-elite athletes in the ranking of life roles. There was also no association between athletic identity and performance. As age increased athletic identity decreased, and gender was found to have no influence on athletic identity. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D)--University of Warwick, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-283).

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Jeffrey James, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Sport Management, Recreation Management, and Physical Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 26, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 65 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

While football is legitimately regarded as the ultimate global game, its significance to Scotland is even more exaggerated, in historical, social and cultural terms. Scots were at the forefront of 'globalising' the sport, teaching the English and other foreigners to play a highly technical and 'passing' game, only to abandon this later with characteristic complacency. Within Scotland, 'the only game' has provided its inhabitants with a cultural obsession, in which sectarian, regional and national animosities and inequalities may be contested and unsatisfactorily resolved. Consequently, the Scots are credited with gifting the world the phenomenon of 'football hooliganism', primarily at domestic club level, although the authorities latterly claim to have 'solved' such fan disorder. Upon the national stage, some argue football's social and political impacts have been markedly more pernicious, in being a dubious receptacle for the tartan-coated 'sub-nationalism' of a nation still denied a protective State. Therefore, this thesis examines the culture of these two particular, polarised categories of Scottish football fans, namely the contemporary hooligans (the 'soccer casuals') and the national team's supporters (the carnival or ambassadorial 'Tartan Army'). The thesis draws heavily upon qualitative fieldwork with these supporter groups, undertaken over the course of five years (1990-1994). To achieve this, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part contextualises the discussion, by looking at previous explanations of football hooliganism and the extent to which these fit with initial evidence from the opposing, Scottish fan cultures. The second and third parts then introduce sustained fieldwork and analyses of these supporter groups.

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of Art History and Communication Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/03/12). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2004. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 431-445).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2004. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy