UK-Taiwan Critical Social Sciences of Sport Network

The project draws together researchers from the UK and Taiwan who study sport from critical social scientific perspectives such as sociology, politics, human geography, and communication studies. The UK and Taiwan are world leaders in these fields, and the UK and Taiwan applicants have a proven track record of collaboration. While previous collaborations have been built on the common issues sport faces in in the two countries - most notably nationalism and gender - the two countries also face similar emerging issues around immigration and sport and foreign investment in domestic sporting cultures. This project will expand existing relations through sharing ideas, evidence, methods and experience. This will stimulate new research projects of international significance. However, additional benefits will include improving academic-public engagement, creating more cohesive research communities in the two countries, and boosting the international profile of both UK and Taiwan scholars in the field of sport and social science.
Relations between UK and Taiwan researchers will be strengthened in multiple ways. A website will serve as a vehicle for the sharing and dissemination of information about the broader project. Podcasts will include introductory information about the sport cultures in the two countries and focus on the most pressing contemporary issues. Scoping surveys will map the field and identify areas with the greatest potential for future development. Research partnerships will be developed through targeted financial support and a mentoring programme especially designed to assist Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Exchange visits to the UK and Taiwan will include a series of events which showcase research strengths, explore what can be mutually learnt about academic-media-public engagements, strengthen both domestic and international organisational collaborations, and support doctoral students and ECRs. Social media will be used throughout the project to engage research communities, publicise project activities and thus sustain the network.
Project outputs will be designed to appeal to both academic and public audiences. In both countries we will create databases of expertise within the social sciences of sport. The presentations and posters produced through the network collaborations, including those presented at the domestic meetings and the ISSA Congress, will be hosted on the project website. A journal article will report the findings of scoping surveys and two journal special issues and an edited book have been proposed which will prioritise UK-Taiwan comparative studies of sport initiated by this programme. Other journal special issues will be proposed around key topics as the original and innovative research emerges. Podcasts will bring together academic and public audiences by focusing on a broad range of content designed to appeal to researchers and students, as well as those in the sports media and sports industry. The project's social media presence will help sustain the network. It will also generate broader social appeal by connecting academics with the media and the public and engaging the public with contemporary sporting issues and social scientific scholarship. The network's 'pump priming' activities will stimulate longer term collaborations focused on publication and research funding and so create a sustainable community of scholars.