The legitimacy of ethnographic film: literary thoughts and practical realities

Abstract

Despite the advent of qualitative means and methods within sports coaching research, it has recently been argued that such work remains relatively starved of contextual considerations (Jones, Edwards, & Viotto Filho, in press). The claim here relates to investigations being somewhat hollow in terms of appreciating the complexities and contestation of situated action (Jones, Bowes, & Kingston, 2010). This extends to more than a simple critique of reductionism (which has been done extensively elsewhere), to a critical appraisal of what often appears as ‘snapshot’ research. Consequently, although producing insightful, in-depth accounts of human organisations and subcultures has been sought, such work has largely ignored the social beyond the interactional. Notwithstanding a few exceptions (e.g., Cushion & Jones, 2006, 2014; Purdy & Jones, 2011), the production of context-rich ethnographic work into the social logic and enacted craft of sports coaching remains conspicuous by its absence.