Chair: Sally Shaw
11:00am - 11:20am
SENIOR WOMEN, WELLBEING, ENGAGEMENT AND NON-COMPETITIVE SPORTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE LEISURE MARCHING NATIONALS
Trudie Walters & Richard Wright
In Aotearoa New Zealand, 80 percent of adults (aged 15+) have had experience of mental distress, and data shows this is often linked to feelings of isolation and disconnection. While adolescents (aged 15-19) and older adults (aged 60+) are worst affected, females are more likely to experience a common mental disorder than males, regardless of age.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s Mental Health Foundation works towards creating a society where all people enjoy positive mental health and wellbeing. They partnered with the Health Promotion Agency to launch the Five Ways to Wellbeing toolkit in 2018, consisting of five actions adapted from those first created by the UK’s New Economic Foundation. These actions are designed to improve physical, psychological and sociological wellbeing: Give; Be Active; Keep Learning; Take Notice; and Connect.
We applied the toolkit to a case study analysis of the 2019 New Zealand Leisure Marching Nationals, an annual non-competitive sports event, and offer a rare insight into the clear contribution that even a single annual event can make to the achievement of the Five Ways to Wellbeing. We find that such events may act as a vehicle for active ageing through their contribution to health and wellbeing for senior women.
11:20am - 11:40am
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY AND SPORT IN THE SOCIALISATION OF CHILDREN
Aleksandra Stojanovska, Roslyn Kerr & Greg Ryan
This research aims to provide insights into the relationship between family and sport during the process of child socialisation. In line with Berger and Luckmann’s theory of socialisation, the family has long been considered as the agent of primary socialisation, with wider social influences such as sport acting as secondary influencers. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of fifteen children, aged 10-12, who had been participating in competitive team sports for at least two years, their parents, and thirteen children’s sports coaches. The results identified a range of characteristics that had been developed or extended through sporting participation, some of which were unexpected in comparison with previous literature. For example, all three groups identified the growth in children’s communication skills through playing sport, along with more traditional sporting skills such as teamwork.
11:40am - 12:00pm
WHAT IS THE NAME? “CHINESE TAIPEI” OR “TAIWAN”: THE PARADOX OF SPORTS NATIONALISM IN TAIWAN
Meng-Tyng Hsieh
In 2018, the name rectification referendum was launched in Taiwan. It requested using Taiwan as the name to apply when attending the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in place of Chinese Taipei. The referendum gave rise to a series of debates between Republic of China (ROC/ Chung Hua Ming Kuo) nationalism and Taiwanese nationalism. This study analyses the name rectification referendum coverage and comments on social media platforms. It shows the paradox of two nationalisms. With the Taiwanisation of the ROC, the Chinese Taipei (Chung Hua) team was equated with ROC/ Taiwan, and it was considered as an acceptable name for the ROC by the ROC nationalists and Taiwan as an island's name cannot be represented as a whole country. Counter to this, Taiwanese nationalists argued that Taiwan per se is the synonym of the name of the country. However, both nationalisms excluded China from the imagined community. Additionally, both sides attempt to reach their political ends, seeking recognition from the international community, maintaining the ROC's nationalist symbol, and removing the Chinese political legacy and confronting China's political coercion, through exploiting sport. In the end, because of the risk of being disqualified by the International Olympic Committee, the name rectification referendum was defeated.
12:00pm - 12:20pm
LGBTQ+ WOMEN’S INCLUSION IN RUGBY IN AOTEAROA/NZ
Sally Shaw
Women and gender were a focus of New Zealand Rugby (NZR)’s Respect and Responsibility Review (2016), and are a focus of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) work in NZ rugby. There is little information, however, about the experiences of women’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, takatāpui, queer/questioning+ (LGBTQ+) communities in rugby in Aotearoa. Anecdotally, for some LGBTQ+ women, rugby is considered to be a more inclusive space than other sports. The purpose of this research is to examine the inclusion experiences of senior (+18 years) members of LGBTQ+ communities, who self-identify as women, and who are involved in NZ rugby as players, coaches, administrators, team managers, and/or match officials. Analysing discursive practices (Baachi & Bonham, 2014), this research seeks to shed light on whether rugby is an inclusive space for LGBTQ+ women in Aotearoa and, if so, why? A mixed-methods, online survey (Braun, 2020) was distributed to female rugby participants using NZR’s database and data analysis is ongoing. Preliminary results will be presented, along with reflections on the use of mixed-method in this context. In the medium to long-term, this research will contribute to the analysis of discursive practices in sport (e.g. Spaaij, 2019) and to NZR’s ongoing D&I objectives.
