Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Free Play: Removing Barriers To Athletic Self-Expression In Sport, Matthew R. Waddell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The choice of what sport to play and the manner in which a person plays it has moral content and represents values that are personally meaningful to the individual athlete. However, due to the hegemonic influence of the concept of fair play, athletes do not have control over, or freedom of expression within, their chosen sports. This has additional and harmful ramifications for those currently excluded from communities of sport practice because the rules of sporting contests have very little flexibility to allow for participant directed change. A rights-based conception of sport encourages athletes to engage in ‘civil disobedience’ within …