Communicating Consent in Sport: A Typological Model of Athletes’ Consent Practices within Combat Sports

Alex Channon, Christopher Matthews

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    This paper provides a systematic attempt to empirically describe the ways in which athletes’ consent to take part in sport is socially constructed, communicated, and understood by others. Due to a notable lack of prior research on this topic, we draw on insights from sex research to theorise consent as a communicative social practice, specifically applying this notion to interpreting the world of competitive combat sports. To do so, we combine data from across numerous studies using the method of concatenated exploration, producing a post-hoc, longitudinal, cross-contextual qualitative analysis of the ways in which consent is practiced in such settings. We then outline a four-point typology of how consent is performed, including the following categories: overt communication; subtle communication; assumed consent; and deferred consent. We conclude by arguing that the apparent predominance of subtle, assumed and deferred consent presents some worrying implications for athletes’ freedom, potentially undermining the morally transformative potential of consent within these ostensibly ‘violent’, often injurious sports contexts.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)899-917
    Number of pages18
    JournalInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport
    Volume57
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 6 Oct 2021

    Keywords

    • Consent
    • Combat Sports
    • Martial Arts
    • Violence
    • Injury
    • Risk
    • combat sports
    • martial arts
    • risk
    • injury
    • consent
    • violence

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