The social grounds of self-tracking in insurance: A mixed-method approach to adoption and use.

Scholars have explored the role of self-tracking in mediating people's values, perceptions, and practices. But little is known about its institutionalised forms, although it is becoming a routine component of health policies and insurance programs. Furthermore, the role of structural elements such as sociodemographic variables, socialisations, and trajectories has been neglected. Using both quantitative (n = 818) and qualitative (n = 44) data gathered from users and non-users of an insurance program's self-tracking intervention, and drawing from Bourdieu's theoretical framework, we highlight the impact of users' social background on the adoption and use of the technology. We show that older, poorer, and less educated individual are less likely to adopt the technology, and describe four prototypical categories of users, the meritocrats, the litigants, the scrutinisers and the good-intentioned. Each category displays different reasons and ways to use the technology that are grounded in users' socialisations and life trajectories. Results suggest that too much emphasis may have been put on self-tracking's transformative powers and not enough on its reproductive inertia, with important consequences for both scholars, designers, and public health stakeholders.

'Clean athlete status' cannot be certified: Calling for caution, evidence and transparency in 'alternative' anti-doping systems.

Athletes, sponsors and sport organisations all have a vested interest in upholding the values of clean sport. Despite the considerable and concerted efforts of the global anti-doping system over two decades, the present system is imperfect. Capitalising upon consequent frustrations of athletes, event organisers and sponsors, alternative anti-doping systems have emerged outside the global regulatory framework. The operating principles of these systems raise several concerns, notably including accountability, legitimacy and fairness to athletes. In this paper, we scrutinise the Clean Protocol™, which is the most comprehensive alternative system, for its shortcomings through detailed analysis of its alleged logical and scientific merits. Specifically, we draw the attention of the anti-doping community - including researchers and practitioners - to the potential pitfalls of using assessment tools beyond the scope for which they have been validated, and implementing new approaches without validation. Further, we argue that whilst protecting clean sport is critically important to all stakeholders, protocols that put athletes in disadvantageous positions and/or pose risks to their professional and personal lives lack legitimacy. We criticise the use of anti-doping data and scientific research out of context, and highlight unintended harms that are likely to arise from the widespread implementation of such protocols in parallel with - or in place of - the existing global anti-doping framework.

La construction du corps par le bodybuilding au Brésil / The construction of the body by bodybuilding in Brazil / La construcción del cuerpo por el culturismo en Brasil

Cet article a comme objectif comprendre la construction du corps par le bodybuilding. Il s'agit d'une étude de terrain qui a permis d'interviewer des bodybuilders du nord-est du Brésil. Des entretiens de type semi-structuré ont été réalisés avec un échantillon de huit hommes et deux femmes. Nous avons procédé à une analyse de contenu des entretiens. Les résultats ont permis d'identifier des usages différenciés du bodybuilding en lien avec les expériences passées du corps, les modes d'engagement et le sexe. Si la souffrance évoquée pour expliquer son engagement dans la pratique est individuelle, l'adhésion à de nouvelles normes de construction du corps se fait par un collectif de personnes qui conduisent à normaliser la consommation de substances pharmacologiques

This article looks into the construction of the body by bodybuilding. It is a field study interviewing bodybuilders in North-eastern Brazil. Semi-structured Interviews were conducted with a sample of eight men and two women and underwent content analysis. The results allowed identifying various uses of bodybuilding regarding subjects' past experiences with their bodies, modes commitment to the practice, and sex. If the suffering evoked to explain their commitment is individual, adherence to new standards of construction of the body takes place through a collective of people who lead to normalization of consumption of pharmacological substances

El objetivo de este artículo es entender la construcción del cuerpo por el culturismo. Se trata de un estudio de campo que permitió entrevistar a culturistas del Nordeste de Brasil. Las entrevistas de tipo semiestructurado se realizaron con una muestra de ocho hombres y dos mujeres. Realizamos un análisis de contenido de las entrevistas. Los resultados han permitido identificar usos diferenciados del culturismo según las experiencias pasadas del cuerpo, los modos de compromiso y el sexo. Si el sufrimiento planteado para explicar su compromiso con la práctica es individual, la adhesión a nuevas normas de construcción del cuerpo se hace por un colectivo de personas que llevan a normalizar el consumo de sustancias farmacológicas

Understanding the Paths to Appearance- and Performance-Enhancing Drug Use in Bodybuilding.

How do gym-goers who are normally not inclined to resort to appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (APEDs) progressively normalize their use? Based on data collected through a year and a half of participant observation in a gym and 30 semi-directive interviews with practitioners with varying profiles in French-speaking Switzerland, this article examines the evolution of practitioners' relations with APED use by articulating various levels of analysis. Associated with social vulnerabilities, the progressive normalization of APED use is concomitant with the "conversion" to bodybuilding. Our results show the extent to which and under what conditions interactions within the layout of gyms can influence practices. From refusal to normalization, our results suggest that APEDs and the associated beliefs coincide with career stages, which we aim to bring to light here.

Moral disengagement in the legitimation and realization of aggressive behavior in soccer and ice hockey.

The aim of the present study was to verify that the level of tolerance for aggression is higher in a collective context than in an individual context (polarization effect), and to test the association between moral disengagement, team and self-attitudes toward aggression, and tolerance and realization of aggressive acts in Swiss male soccer and ice hockey. In individual or collective answering conditions, 104 soccer and 98 ice hockey players viewed videotaped aggressive acts and completed a questionnaire, including measures of the perceived legitimacy of videotaped aggression, of the teammates, coach, and self attitudes toward transgressions (modified TNQ), of the moral disengagement in sport (modified MDSS-S), and of self-reported aggressive behavior. A multilevel analysis confirmed a strong polarization effect on the perception of instrumental aggression, the videotaped aggressive acts appearing more tolerated in the collective than in the individual answering condition. Using a structural equation modeling, we found that the moral disengagement, which mediates the effects of perceived coach and ego attitudes toward transgressions, correlates positively with the tolerance of hostile aggression within teams, and with the level of aggressive acts reported by the participants. Aggr. Behav. Aggr. Behav. 42:123-133, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An alternative approach to the prevention of doping in cycling.

BACKGROUND: Framed by an overly reductionist perspective on doping in professional cycling as an individual moral failing, anti-doping policies tend to envisage a combination of education and repression as the primary intervention strategies. We offer an alternative approach, which seeks to understand doping practices as embedded in social relations, especially in relation to team organisation and employment conditions. METHODS: We undertake an in-depth analysis of the functioning of nine of the 40 world professional cycling teams, and the careers of the 2,351 riders who were or have been professionals since 2005. RESULTS: We find that anti-doping approaches rest upon questionable assumptions of doping as an individual moral fault, and have not produced the anti-doping effects expected or intended. Based on an analysis of team practices, and the ways in which riders produce their achievements, we offer an alternative perspective which emphasises doping as a product of social-economic condition. Our findings emphasise employment and business models, as well as day-to-day working conditions, as structural drivers of doping practices in which individuals and teams engage. CONCLUSION: Anti-doping requires structural as well as cultural change within the sport of professional cycling, especially in the ways teams function economically.

Social contexts of sports-practicing youths' hazardous drinking.

Sports-practicing youths are at an elevated risk for alcohol use and misuse. Although much attention has recently been given to depicting subgroups facing the greatest threats, little evidence exists on the contexts in which their drinking takes place. Using data from a cross-sectional study on youth sports participation and substance use in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, this study focused on the social contexts associated with hazardous drinking of 894 sports-practicing adolescents aged 16 to 20. Divided between those who had been drunk in the last month (hazardous drinkers, n = 315) and those who had not (n = 579), sports-practicing adolescents were compared on reported gatherings (sports-related, sports-unrelated, mixed) likely linked to their drinking behaviour. Mixed social contexts, followed by sports-unrelated ones, were reported as the most common context by both male and female youths who practiced sports. After controlling for several possible confounders, male hazardous drinkers were more than 3 times more likely to report sports-unrelated social contexts as the most common, compared to sport-related ones, while females were more than 7 times more likely to do so. Our findings seem to indicate that, rather than focusing only on sports-related factors, prevention of alcohol misuse among sports-practicing youths should also pay attention to the social contextualisation of their hazardous drinking.