Several studies using a sociological approach identified the existence of a culture of risk in sport. These works studied professional, amateur, male and female sport figurations and concluded that this culture of risk enmeshes athletes to practice and compete while in pain and when injured. Particularly, studies about gender acknowledge the existence of similar male and female experiences of pain and injury. However, these studies separately studied male and female sports. No work to date has studied within the same research design athletes and coaches perceptions about pain and injury experiences and how they are negotiated and socialized. Thus, this study sought to explore whether male and female experiences of pain and injury really are similar, or whether differences would become evident through a study which involved a more direct comparison. The research design of this study was informed by figurational sociology. Data for this work were firstly gathered during 9 months of overt-observation. By including observational notes from the interactions between 11 male athletes, 13 female athletes, 3 coaches of the male team, 3 coaches of the female team and 2 physiotherapists, this research provides a more adequate understanding of the gymnastics figuration, its interdependences and power fluxes. Additionally, 9 male athletes, 8 female athletes, 3 male team coaches and 2 female team coaches were interviewed. Data collected in this research is in accordance with sociological literature about pain and injury in sport. All athletes revealed a willingness to continue training and competing even when injured and in pain. However, data also revealed gendered differences about how male and female athletes are enmeshed in the culture of risk. Particularly, gendered differences were found in the training environment, coach-athlete power differences, body control, socialization processes and in male and female athletes expressions of pain and injury. Thus, this research raises several questions about the value of sociological studies of gender in sport that approach male and female experiences separately, as gender is sociologically created through male and female interdependence.

This study combines moral panic with the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias to explore how climate change has developed as a social problem. The central argument is that,through combining the short-term focus of moral panic with the long-term focus of Elias, we can examine the interplay between planned and unplanned developments in both the perception and reality of climate change. The first part of the research consisted of discourse analysis of a variety of different texts from 1800 to the present. These were used to explore the long-term development of climatechange as emerging from an ecological civilizing process. The second stage of the research related these developments to moral panics, arguing that the emergence of climate change can only be understood by exploring the interplay between long-term processes and short-term campaigns. The third part of the research explored these historical developments at the individual level, examining the notion of individual ecological civilizing processes. 15 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with climate change ‘activists’ and ‘non-activists’, comparing how their biographical developments related to ecological civilizing processes and moral panics. The final part of the research compared climate change with five other empirical examples of moral panics, to explore the civilizing and decivilizing processes and civilizing offensives that occur before, during, and after the panics. The central aim was to demonstrate the complexity of moral panics, and to aid in the reformulation of the concepts of moral panic and decivilization. Through a synthesis of Elias and moral panic, as applied to the example of climate change, this study aimed to: critically assess the development of climate change; to reassess the concept of decivilization and the relation between civilizing processes and offensives; and to reformulate the concept of moral panic, including suggesting how moral panic research ought to be undertaken.

The purpose of this thesis is to Investigate the relation between mega sport event, media and Korean nationalism in the context of globalisation. Attention is paid to the South Korean media coverage of the 2004 summer Athens Olympic Games. A process/figurational sociological perspective was implemented in making sense of the global-national nexus in the media coverage of the Olympic Games. In this examination, the way In which the media promote the notion of globalisation and reinforce the Idea of nationalism was addressed. The South Korean newspapers and television coverage were investigated In a qualitative manner, and thematic, discourse and visual/image analysis were carried out. Using an inductive thematic coding system, themes and types of media discourse of globalisation and nationalism were identified. The research findings showed that the media coverage of the Olympic Games contains elements of both globalisation and nationalism. While the notions of a global festival and global fraternity were frequently used in celebration of emergence of a global society at the Olympic Games by the media, nationalistic discourses and expressions also accounted for a significant portion of the media coverage of the Olympic Games. It was also found that other notions such as Olympic ideals, war on terror and capitalist ideology were also central elements of the media coverage of the Olympic Games. In addition, the research outcome also points out that a unitary Korean nationalism, which supports reunification of the divided Korea, is becoming a dominant form of discourse on inter-Korean relations within South Korea. Therefore, a unitary Korean nationalism is evident in the South Korean media coverage of the Olympic Games. Overall, the research findings suggest that a media version of the Olympic Games is both a supreme facilitator of globalisation and an ultimate identifier of the nation.

This project examines the medical management of pain and injury in British Olympic sport. By drawing upon the perspectives of health-care providers, it explores key developments such as the professionalisation, formalisation and bureaucratisation of sports medicine and the consequences of such developments on doctors' and physiotherapists' working practices, relationships with each other and on athlete care. A questionnaire about the backgrounds (e.g. the qualifications, experience and methods of recruitment and appointment) was sent to members of the British Olympic Association's Medical Committee and Physiotherapy Forum in November 2007 and in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 doctors and 14 physiotherapists between January and June 2008. Data indicate that attempts to professionalise sports medicine into a medical speciality have created fragmentation and resistance among the various groups involved in athlete care at this level. Whilst clinicians were committed by multi-disciplinary practice overall, data reveal qualitative differences between practitioners who have established themselves within bureaucratic organisations such as the English Institute of Sport (EIS) compared to those who provide largely voluntary medical services via National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs). Thus, practitioners in positions of managerial authority were constrained to negotiate the underlying amateur values of numerous sports medicine staff at the same time as striving for a professional ethos. Processes of professionalisation have also impacted upon the inter-professional relations between doctors and physiotherapists and the social organisation of athlete-care. As a consequence of their work setting, clinicians were constrained to adhere to the performance-motivated demands of their athlete and coach clients over longer-term health concerns. Because of their greater orientation towards performance, physiotherapists were able to effectively "compete" with doctors in a number of practice contexts and so claim considerable professional autonomy. This project adds to the existing body of knowledge on the medical practices of sports medicine clinicians in elite level sport and demonstrates the heterogeneity within this area of practice. Furthermore, the thesis highlights the importance of understanding clinicians working practices as a consequence of their particular work setting.

This thesis examines the extent to and the way in which the contemporary political and socio-cultural context of South Korea, a divided, postcolonial and Northeast Asian nation is embedded in the national media coverage of global sport events, especially the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Attention is given to the implications of current state of international relations, politics and foreign policies between the R.O.K. and its geopolitical neighbours such as the U.S. and the D.P.R.K., Japan and China from the Northeast. The similarities and differences in the symbolic descriptions of Olympic athletes and delegates, and their achievements along with their identity markers such as national identity, regional identity, race and ethnicity are analysed. The global-national patterns and transformations in the power relations between hegemonic and ideological elements, such as nationalisms, racial/ethnic stereotypes, pan-Asian sentiments and Asianism, are examined. According to the characteristics of conservative or progressive, mainstream or sport-specific and print or television media coverage, the ways in which reporting style and tendency are distinctive from each other are clarified. Data was collected from newspapers and television coverage in the period of Beijing Olympic Games and a week before and after the Games. Media content analysis, including thematic analysis, discourse analysis and visual/image analysis, is used to analyse the data in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The theoretical frameworks of identity politics, contemporary cultural studies and figurational sociological concepts of personal pronouns and the established and outsiders are applied. The research findings discuss the twin process of increasing varieties and diminishing contrasts and homogenising and heterogenising tendencies in the globalisation process, which was evident in the South Korean media coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and its opening ceremony.

À partir du cas des dispositifs d’ouverture sociale lancés en France et en Angleterre, cette thèse aborde la question des effets des institutions d’élite sur les processus de stratification sociale, dans un contexte d’internationalisation de l’enseignement supérieur. En nous concentrant sur la mise en œuvre de ces dispositifs, nous avons apporté trois éclairages sur ce débat : - Le travail d’ajustement des institutions repose sur leur capacité à instituer des liens d’interdépendance, qui assurent une cohésion autour de la lecture commune des inégalités sociales. Plus précisément, les institutions contribuent à affecter le fonctionnement des politiques éducatives en matière d’ouverture sociale, en promouvant des modes de coopération entre des « univers » qui s’ignoraient relativement auparavant. - Par ailleurs, le travail d’ajustement engendre des changements dans les processus de certification. Il conduit les institutions à promouvoir de nouvelles conventions de jugement comme le potentiel. - Enfin, le travail des institutions concerne aussi leur capacité à transmettre des normes scolairement légitimes dans le cadre d’espaces de socialisation anticipatrice, comme le tutorat. La comparaison des dispositifs entre les deux pays étudiés souligne la convergence dans le traitement et la temporalité des ajustements. Alors que la question de la diversification des élites apparaît comme spécifique à chaque espace national, l’analyse comparée souligne l’existence de traits communs entre les institutions et l’impact de l’internationalisation sur cette question.Cette thèse porte sur les cas de Sciences Po, de l’ESSEC et de l’Université d’Oxford. / Widening participation programmes have been launched simultaneously in both France and England in the 2000s. They stem from the idea that it is necessary for elite universities, despite their traditional mission of elite education, to get involved in the field of antidiscrimination and thus develop measures to increase equality of opportunity and diversify their student body. This thesis highlights the impact of these programmes on the way to address social inequalities in the educational sector. In fact, widening participation schemes contribute to the dissemination of a new interpretation of social mobility on the basis of a compensation targeting talented pupils (Pupils identified as “with potential”) rather than sustaining the most deprived of them. It is allowed by the current withdrawal of the traditional role of the Welfare state in education (in a context of financial crisis) which increases the pressure on universities (through financial incentives), in the name of their social responsibility towards society. This work is based on an ethnographic survey led in three French and English elite institutions, including the University of Oxford, Sciences Po and ESSEC.

Syftet med denna kritiska diskursanalys är att öka förståelsen för diskursen om den så kallade “flyktingkrisen” i svensk tidningsmedia under september och oktober 2015. Denna specifika och aktuella diskurs har, som vi vet, ännu inte studerats med vetenskapliga metoder då tidigare forskning främst behandlar tidigare flyktingmigrationer i Sverige och i andra länder. Det finns således en kunskapslucka inom detta område som vi skulle vilja medverka i att fylla. Undersökningen fokuserar på hur ”flyktingmigrationen” och ”flyktingarna” samt den ”svenska nationen” och ”svenskar” framställs i diskursen utifrån en figurationell och maktkritisk utgångspunkt. Norbert Elias och John L. Scotsons teori om etablerade och outsiders, Ulrich Becks teori om risksamhället samt Edward Saids teori om orientalism används som orienterande bakgrundsteorier för att studera relationen mellan ”etablerade svenskar” och flyktingar såsom den uttrycks i tidningsmedia. Som metod har vi valt att använda oss av Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys, då denna kan användas i studerandet av konkret text såsom tidningsartiklar samt kan kombineras med en sociologisk analys. Resultaten visar att flyktingmigrationen samt flyktingarna framställs som ett omfattande hot mot samhället. Flyktingarna porträtteras ofta på ett avhumaniserande sätt, exempelvis som okontrollerbara vattenmassor. I ett fåtal fall är framställningen mer human och personlig, dock präglas dessa utsagor av flyktingen som den stereotype andre. I motsats till detta porträtteras Sverige och svensken som moraliskt överlägsna, goda, och icke-rasister. Den sociala relationen mellan dessa grupper kan på så sätt ses som en illustration av figurationen etablerade och outsiders, där spänningarna mellan grupperna verkar öka då flyktingarna uppfattas som ett hot mot samhälls- och maktordningen. / The aim of this critical discourse analysis is to create a broader understanding of the refugee discourse in Swedish national newspapers during the months of September and October of 2015. The main reason for this study is a perceived knowledge gap in this specific area of discourse, since extant studies focus on earlier refugee discourses in Sweden and in other countries. This essay attempts to understand how the social identities of the refugees and the Swedish population can be upheld in the media and how the relationship between these groups can be perceived. Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson’s theory of the established and the outsiders, Ulrich Becks theory regarding the risk society and Edward Saids theory of orientalism are used as orienting concepts in the analysis. The overall method is inspired by Faircloughs critical discourse analysis, since it enables the study of tangible texts such as newspaper articles as well as the use of sociological analysis. Our results show that the refugees are depicted as a considerable threat to society as a whole. The refugees themselves are often spoken of in a dehumanizing fashion, for example in metaphors of uncontrollable waves. In a few cases the refugees are portrayed in a more personal fashion. These are however unbalanced and stereotypical. In contrast, Sweden and its people are depicted as morally superior and good Samaritans. We have thus concluded that the relationship between these groups can be seen in the light of the established and the outsiders, and that the tension between them seems to be growing as the refugees are seen as a threat to the social order and power balance in Sweden.