Call for papers
\nSpecial Issue: Sport Ethics. The Challenges of 21st-century Sport
\nEditors:
\nFrancisco Javier Lopez Frias
\nOscar Chiva Bartoll (Universitat Jaume I\, Castelló\;n)
\nDeadline for submissions: September 15\, 2015
\nJournal publication date: April\, 2016
\nLanguages: Spanish\, Catalan\, English\,
\nRECERCA is a bianual journal published by the Department of Philosophy and Sociology (Universitat Jaume I de Castelló\;n). Since 2012\, Recerca has used the OJS for its blind peer review process: http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/index.php/reserca
\nRECERCA is indexed in Humanities Source Publications\, Fuente Acadé\;mica Premier\, Philosopher&rsquo\;s Index\, IEDCYT (category B) and Latindex.
\n\;
\nCall for papers
\nSports are everywhere around us. They have become a point of global interconnection in our time. People talk about sports in the bar\, the gym\, at work\, at the bus stop\, in classrooms. Sports are even being increasingly discussed in academia. This is a recent phenomenon. Although some pedagogues have highlighted the role of sports in character-building since the 19th century and even prior\, this did not raise a debate in theoretical disciplines other than pedagogy. Until recent times\, sports were often regarded by academics as something trivial due to their intrinsically recreational nature. After all\, according to their critics\, sports are &ldquo\;just games&rdquo\;.
\nHowever\, with the rise in popularity of 20th-century sports\, more theorists\, such as philosophers\, anthropologists\, historians or sociologists\, have become interested in analyzing sports critically. The first theoretical work aimed at providing a detailed analysis of sports is Homo Ludens\, by the famous Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. This work paved the way for the appearance of other relevant works aimed at analyzing sports theoretically. Examples of these works are Paul Weiss&rsquo\; Sport: A Philosophic Inquiry\, and The Grasshopper: Games\, Life and Utopia\, by Bernard Suits\, who is largely considered the founder of the philosophy of sport.
\nRegarding philosophy in general and ethics in particular\, the interest in sports as a topic of study has been linked to the practical turn occurring within philosophy during the 1960s and 1970s. At this time\, several social problems\, such as environmental problems\, animal exploitation\, the Vietnam war\, the role of women in society\, and racial segregation &ldquo\;knocked on the door&rdquo\; of philosophical reflection in search of critical understanding. So did sports. Moreover\, it is important to remark that several athletes played a key role in people&rsquo\;s awareness of these problems. For example\, the boxer Mohammed Ali played a more than significant role in the American anti-Vietnam war movement.
\nDuring the decade of the 1970s\, several ethical issues became the most discussed topics within the philosophy of sport\, in opposition to the predominance of the analytic-linguistic approach that had dominated the discipline since its emergence in the 1940s and 1950s. With the rise and success of sports mega-events\, such as the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup\, several problems have raised concern among those in charge of our sporting world. Among these problems\, we can highlight equity of access to the practice of sports\, and the promotion of anti-values linked to capitalism and the commodification of sports\, such as performance\, competition\, record\, sacrifice\, body-machine\, etc...
\nHowever\, the term &ldquo\;sport&rdquo\; includes much more than the problems related to elite sports competitions mentioned so far. In this sense\, we should\, along with José\; Marí\;a Cagigal\, distinguish between &ldquo\;sport-spectacle&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;sport-praxis&rdquo\;. The latter type of sport raises many crucial ethical questions\, such as those related to the teaching of values through sports\, the use of sport to build bridges between opposing communities and societies\, and the decrease in people&rsquo\;s engagement in everyday sporting activities. This other side of sport should not be downplayed in our critical analysis of sport\, since it could open the door to novel interpretation of the most debated issues within sport ethics.
\nThis special issue of RESERCA is aimed at trying to bring the philosophico-ethical debate on sports into Spanish Academia. In doing so\, we &ldquo\;jump on the same boat&rdquo\; as\, for example\, the members of the Spanish Association of the Philosophy of Sport (AEFD)\, the Latin Association of the Philosophy of Sport (ALFiD)\, the European Association of the Philosophy of Sport (EAPS)\, and the International Association of the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS)\, who have been discussing philosophical issues around sports for a couple of years with the aim of developing a fruitful debate over sports in our intellectual circles. It is not only activities such as economics and politics which need the help of critical reflection to better achieve their goal\, but every human social practice functions better when accompanied with critical reflection and awareness.
\nFrancisco Javier Ló\;pez Frí\;as and Oscar Chiva Bartoll
\nFrancisco.Javier.Lopez@uv.es
\nochiva@uji.es
\nRECERCA. REVISTA DE PENSAMENT Y ANÀ\;LISI
\nISSN: 1130-6149
\nDEPARTAMENTO DE FILOSOFÍ\;A Y SOCIOLOGÍ\;A
\nUNIVERSITAT JAUME I DE CASTELLÓ\;
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR