1,720,957 research outputs found

    ‘Full speed ahead Barcelona’: the social construction of Roy Keane’s 1999 semi-final performance versus Juventus

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    For over 30 years, the men's UEFA Champions League (UCL) has showcased Europe's most elite and wealthiest football clubs. Debates surrounding the competition’s best individual performance rarely reach a consensus. However, one common response points towards Manchester United’s Roy Keane versus Juventus in the 1999 semi-final second leg. After falling 2-0 behind within 11 minutes, Keane almost single-handedly swung the game in United's favour as the final in Barcelona loomed. This article examines Keane's performance through the lens of a sociological case-study, drawing on the circumstances of his career and the match itself. Critical attention is given to sociologist Everett Hughes’ conceptual belief of turning points, which has been innovatively applied to a single event in this paper. The author argues that, while statistics have typically driven performance analysis, only a sociological interpretation of Keane's performance provides an accurately sophisticated comprehension of, arguably, one of the UCL’s greatest individual performances

    A hero’s journey: the monomythical narrative of Diego Maradona’s World Cup appearances

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    A genius and cultural figure who transcended the sport he played, Diego Maradona is one of the most important icons of popular football culture. The ‘Pibe de Oro’ attracted attention each time he graced the pitch, perhaps none more so than on the international stage at four World Cup tournaments between 1982-1994. Whilst social science research has failed to unequivocally define the notion of sports heroism, this paper aims to build upon this concept through the lens of a mythical narrative. We will trace Maradona’s World Cup appearances using Joseph Campbell’s narratological theory, the hero’s journey, through the monomyth template of three significant acts: the departure, the initiation and the return. This paper will provide a detailed enquiry into Maradona’s extraordinary skill and achievements, addressing both his World Cup highlights and lowlights for Argentina in an international journey that is unlikely to be replicated

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Levelling the field? The English Football Association's promotion of their men's and women's national teams through Twitter

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    This study examines and compares the coverage of both the England men's and women's national football teams by their governing body, The Football Association (FA), immediately before, during and immediately following their respective 2020 and 2022 European Championships. Content analysis of two of the FA's official Twitter accounts demonstrates some positive shifts in the general representation of the women's football team. However, concerns remain regarding the FA's social media strategy whereby they promote the women's team through a discrete profile rather than their general Twitter account, which has a much larger following. This paper argues that social media provides governing bodies with an opportunity to effectively promote their women's teams and, as such, organisations hold significant responsibility to achieve this should they wish to see the more equitable promotion of women athletes in the wider media

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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