A blog post about a recent publication (part of a larger ongoing project) around the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Research projects often start from informal conversations across a number of years. I will briefly reflect on where this project originated from and the progress we have made to date.
In 2018/19, Dr Adam Beissel and I met on a couple of occasions. Firstly, during visits to the UK as part of the study abroad trips, Adam and I discussed a project around the FIFA World Cup and researching through the medium of Twitter. This conversation then formalised when we both discussed the project during the 39th Annual North American Society of the Sociology of Sport Conference towards the end of 2018 in Canada. Adam presented a piece on FIFA, which has now been published in Populism in Sport, Leisure, and Popular Culture (chapter 15), during this talk I briefly met Andy, and informally our research connections were formed!
Fast forward to 2020, and the world has changed, in particular the acceptance and benefit of using Zoom/Teams/Meet to speak to further research conversations. Whereas previously Andy (based in New Zealand), Adam (based in America), and I (based in the UK), would have relied on clumsy communication through email and conferences; we now embraced (time zones and all) our ability to meet frequently online and progress our research project. Since then, we have presented at a series of in-person and online conferences or talks, including the Women in Sport and Exercise 2020 (slide extract below).
As you will read in the article, we focused on the brand and Twitter usage of the AsOne 2023 Australia and New Zealand bid for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World CupTM. This piece is the first in our project and, also, part of a fantastic Special Issue in Sport in Society ‘The Sport Mega-Events of the 2020s: Governance, Impacts & Controversies’. A huge thank you to Jan, Joel and Dan for their time and efforts to bring the issue together, we are in excellent company with the other pieces.
What next? Well, we have momentum with this research project. Working hard on:
- Continuing to collect data
- Developing further publications
- Expanding our research collective
- Looking for resource and links
If you are interested in this piece (and cannot get access or want to discuss further) please contact one of us. If you want to join us, then there is a ‘mixer’ planned for April 2022:
VPos
veritypostlethwaite.com 