From fighting the bad to protecting the good : Legitimation strategies in WADA's athlete guides
(2019) In Performance Enhancement and Health- Abstract
The global anti-doping effort in sport is based upon perceptions of the system as desirable, proper and appropriate and thus considered legitimate. The legitimacy of the anti-doping system has earlier been studied bottom-up, based on the views of athletes. In order to gain greater understanding of legitimation processes, it is also important to study legitimation strategies top-down, used by decision-making and governing bodies. The aim of this study was to use Fairclough's critical discourse analytical approach to analyse the social construction of legitimacy in the World Anti-Doping Agency's three editions of a guide to anti-doping rules aimed at athletes. The analysis was performed based on van Leeuwen's four specific legitimation... (More)
The global anti-doping effort in sport is based upon perceptions of the system as desirable, proper and appropriate and thus considered legitimate. The legitimacy of the anti-doping system has earlier been studied bottom-up, based on the views of athletes. In order to gain greater understanding of legitimation processes, it is also important to study legitimation strategies top-down, used by decision-making and governing bodies. The aim of this study was to use Fairclough's critical discourse analytical approach to analyse the social construction of legitimacy in the World Anti-Doping Agency's three editions of a guide to anti-doping rules aimed at athletes. The analysis was performed based on van Leeuwen's four specific legitimation strategies: authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation and mythopoesis. Our analysis shows that the legitimation of the anti-doping discourse as constructed in the athlete guides that has accompanied anti-doping regulations for more than a decade is characterized by continuity as regards an authoritarian attitude, but also by change towards a more rational and athlete-centred stance. A shift can be seen in the construction of legitimacy in the anti-doping discourse from “fighting the bad” to “protecting the good”. We discuss the moral evaluation strategy as a way to construct legitimacy for anti-doping efforts and sport in general towards a wider public. In the light of the results of this study, we conclude that policymaking in relation to doping issues should take into account the dimension of the discursive top-down legitimation, which could affect how the policy is received at the level of the athletes and provide conditions for a sustainable anti-doping system.
(Less)
- author
- Qvarfordt, Anna ; Hoff, David LU ; Bäckström, Åsa and Ahmadi, Nader
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Anti-doping, Doping in sports, Legitimacy, Legitimation strategies
- in
- Performance Enhancement and Health
- article number
- 100147
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85074421285
- ISSN
- 2211-2669
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.peh.2019.100147
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 88373e06-08b5-42f0-881d-8e2bf426580a
- date added to LUP
- 2019-11-22 13:32:07
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 19:01:43
@article{88373e06-08b5-42f0-881d-8e2bf426580a, abstract = {{<p>The global anti-doping effort in sport is based upon perceptions of the system as desirable, proper and appropriate and thus considered legitimate. The legitimacy of the anti-doping system has earlier been studied bottom-up, based on the views of athletes. In order to gain greater understanding of legitimation processes, it is also important to study legitimation strategies top-down, used by decision-making and governing bodies. The aim of this study was to use Fairclough's critical discourse analytical approach to analyse the social construction of legitimacy in the World Anti-Doping Agency's three editions of a guide to anti-doping rules aimed at athletes. The analysis was performed based on van Leeuwen's four specific legitimation strategies: authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation and mythopoesis. Our analysis shows that the legitimation of the anti-doping discourse as constructed in the athlete guides that has accompanied anti-doping regulations for more than a decade is characterized by continuity as regards an authoritarian attitude, but also by change towards a more rational and athlete-centred stance. A shift can be seen in the construction of legitimacy in the anti-doping discourse from “fighting the bad” to “protecting the good”. We discuss the moral evaluation strategy as a way to construct legitimacy for anti-doping efforts and sport in general towards a wider public. In the light of the results of this study, we conclude that policymaking in relation to doping issues should take into account the dimension of the discursive top-down legitimation, which could affect how the policy is received at the level of the athletes and provide conditions for a sustainable anti-doping system.</p>}}, author = {{Qvarfordt, Anna and Hoff, David and Bäckström, Åsa and Ahmadi, Nader}}, issn = {{2211-2669}}, keywords = {{Anti-doping; Doping in sports; Legitimacy; Legitimation strategies}}, language = {{eng}}, publisher = {{Elsevier}}, series = {{Performance Enhancement and Health}}, title = {{From fighting the bad to protecting the good : Legitimation strategies in WADA's athlete guides}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.peh.2019.100147}}, doi = {{10.1016/j.peh.2019.100147}}, year = {{2019}}, }