Where biomedicalisation and magic meet: Therapeutic innovations of elite sports injury in British professional football and cycling

dc.cclicenceCC-BYen
dc.contributor.authorGabe, J.en
dc.contributor.authorCoveney, C. M.en
dc.contributor.authorMcNamee, M. J.en
dc.contributor.authorFaulkner, A.en
dc.date.acceptance2017-02-08en
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-28T15:03:23Z
dc.date.available2018-03-28T15:03:23Z
dc.date.issued2017-04
dc.description.abstractInjury is a conspicuous feature of the practice and public spectacle of contemporary elite sports. The paper argues that the ‘biomedicalisation’ thesis (medico-industrial nexus, techno-scientific drivers, medical optimisation, biologisation, the rise of evidence and health surveillance) goes some way to capturing the use in elite sports injury of some highly specialised mainstream therapies and some highly maverick biological therapies, which are described. Nevertheless, these main strands of biomedicalisation do not capture the full range of these phenomena in the contexts of sports medicine and athletes' practices in accessing innovative, controversial therapies. Drawing on multi-method qualitative research on top-level professional football and cycling in the UK, 2014–2016, we argue that concepts of ‘magic’ and faith-based healing, mediated by notions of networking behaviour and referral systems, furnish a fuller explanation. We touch on the concept of ‘medical pluralism’, concluding that this should be revised in order to take account of belief-based access to innovative bio-therapies amongst elite sportspeople and organisations.en
dc.funderESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)en
dc.identifier.citationFaulkner, A., McNamee, M., Coveney, C. and Gabe, J., (2017) Where biomedicalisation and magic meet: Therapeutic innovations of elite sports injury in British professional football and cycling. Social Science & Medicine, 178, pp.136-143.en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.011
dc.identifier.issn0277-9536
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2086/15674
dc.language.isoenen
dc.peerreviewedYesen
dc.projectidES/K010956/1en
dc.publisherElsevieren
dc.researchinstituteCentre for Reproduction Research (CRR)en
dc.subjectElite sport, Injury, Biomedicalisation, Magic, Belief system, Evidence-based medicine, Medical pluralismen
dc.titleWhere biomedicalisation and magic meet: Therapeutic innovations of elite sports injury in British professional football and cyclingen
dc.typeArticleen

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