Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I am Professor of Sport, Health and Physical Education in the School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive and Education. My research predominantly focuses on social in/justices as related to genders, ethnicites and sexualities within the contexts of sport, health and schooling. I have a particular interest in challenging problematic behaviours in hypermasculine settings, such as in high speed collision sports (e.g. rugby union) and in more recent years, the mining industry. I am particularly interested in how people are shaped by the workings of power and how, in turn, power relations can be shaped by people. Through examining how power ‘works’, I am hopeful that we can make a positive difference in people’s lives.
I have previously worked at the University of Auckland, the University of Waikato and Auckland University of Technology. In a previous life I taught health and physical education and economics at secondary schools.
Research interests
I am a critical qualitative researcher who primarily draws from post-structural theorists to examine socio-cultural and pedagogical issues associated with sport, HPE and exercise, particularly in relation to: injury and pain; gender/sexualities; health, fitness, obesity; embodiment; sports media, the Olympics and elite sport governance, youth sport and coaching. I am interested in how we can use research to make a critical difference in people's lives. My doctorate drew on Foucauldian tools to critically examine rugby union’s influence on masculinities and gender relations in Aotearoa New Zealand.
I currently serve on the editorial boards of the European Journal for Sport and Society, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport (since 2014) and Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education. I am also an Associate Editor for the The History, Culture and Sociology of Sports: Frontiers in Sport and Active Living. I have previously been the associate editor for the Sociology of Sport Journal (2010-12) and I have served on the editorial boards of the Sociology of Sport Journal (2008-09) Annals of Leisure Research (2006-2018) and the Asia Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education (2010-2017).
I am the co-author of Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power, Knowledge and transforming the Self (with Pirkko Markula) and Sport and the Social Significance of Pleasure (with Robert Rinehart and Jayne Caudwell) and co-editor of Examining sport histories: Power, paradigms, and reflexivity (with Murray Phillips) and Critical Research in sport, health and physical education: how to make a difference (with Goran Gerdin and Hakan Larsson). I have also co-edited two special editions of Annals of Leisure Research (Vol 14, 2011, double volume: 181 p.: with Ruth Sibson) and (Vol 10, 2007, double volume 337 p.: with Tess Kay and John Jenkins).
Supervision interests
I am always interested in talking to prospective graduate students about their research interests and how I could help them. I am particularly interested in working with students who aspire to be critical qualitative researchers. Given my interdisciplinary background I have supervised students who have drawn on a range of methods (e.g. ethnography, Foucualdian analysis, narrative inquiry, in-depth interviews, participant-observation, genealogy, 'new' materialist approaches, and phenomenology) and have examined a range of topics, including:
• E-motion: guilt and women’s bodies
• Performing masculinities in school physical education
• Lifestyle sports, participation and ethics
• A Foucauldian genealogy of women’s football in New Zealand
• Formula one, ‘agency’ and the fan
• Using social theories to explore female youth physical culture (snow-boarding)
• International students: linguistics, power and schooling
• Schooling, physical culture and homosexualities
• Chinese women’s understandings of western sport
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- sport sociology
- physical education
- health education
- genders/sexualities
- pain and injury
- Foucault
- Qualitative Research Methodologies
- poststructuralism
- (new) materialism
- pleasure/affect
- critical research
- Ethnography
Network
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BHP South Flank: Using Science to Drive Meaningful Change to Behaviours
Denison, E., Smith, L., Jennings, L., Pringle, R., Genat, A., Tear, M., Zhao, K., Goodwin, D., Wright, B. & Tull, F.
1/11/22 → 30/06/23
Project: Research
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Supporting BHP’s South Flank mine to use science to drive meaningful change to culture and behaviour
22/06/22 → 28/02/23
Project: Consultancy
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CHRU: Challenging Homophobia in Rugby Union
Brennan Bastyovanszky, Salesforce.com (Unites States of America)
27/03/20 → 27/03/21
Project: Research
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Examining World Rugby's transgender ban and the perspectives of cisgender women who play rugby in England, Canada and Australia
Pringle, R. & Denison, E., 2023, Justice for Trans Athletes: Challenges and Struggles. Greey, A. D. & Lenskyj, H. J. (eds.). 1st ed. Bingley UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, p. 75-94 20 p. (Emerald Studies in Sport and Gender).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
Mainland Chinese first-generation immigrants and New Zealanders’ views on sport participation, race/ethnicity and the body: does sport participation enhance cultural understandings?
Pringle, R. & Liu, L., 2023, In: International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Making the familiar strange: a narrative about Spanish children’s experiences of physical (in)activity to reconsider the ability of physical education to produce healthy citizens
González-Calvo, G., García-Monge, A., Gerdin, G. & Pringle, R., 2023, In: Sport, Education and Society. 28, 3, p. 227-238 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus) -
Not the medicine needed? governing fat women's bodies via exercise prescriptions
Pringle, R., 2022, Routledge Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies. Gard, M., Powell, D. & Tenorio, J. (eds.). 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge, p. 85-93 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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The last comparative review of sport history and sport sociology?
Pringle, R., 2022, Routledge Handbook of Sport History. Phillips, M. G., Booth, D. & Adams, C. (eds.). 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge, p. 24-31 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
Prizes
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2021 Celia Brackenridge International Research Award (An honourable mention)
Liu, L. (Recipient) & Pringle, Richard (Recipient), Sep 2021
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Critics’ Choice Award winner
Pringle, Richard (Recipient) & Powell, D. (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) Thesis of the Year Award
Pringle, Richard (Recipient), 2005
Prize: National/international honour
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Australian Society for Sport History, Anthology Award
Pringle, Richard (Recipient) & Phillips, M. (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Honorable Mention for the Sociology of Sport Journal Award
Pringle, Richard (Recipient) & Markula, P. (Recipient), 2006
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
- 2 Editorial responsibility
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Sociology of Sport Journal (Journal)
Richard Pringle (Associate editor)
Jan 2010 → 2012Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial responsibility
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Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies Conference 1999 (Event)
Bevan Grant (Editor in chief) & Richard Pringle (Editor in chief)
1999Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial responsibility