Men, sport, spinal cord injury and the construction of coherence: narrative practice in action

By Brett W. Smith, A. Sparkes. 2002

90 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Based on life history data, this article explores the manner in which coherence is constructed in the narratives told by two men who have acquired a spinal cord injury through playing sport. Drawing on the principles advocated by Gubrium and Holstein, and Holstein and Gubrium, along with a number of analytic concepts provided by others (e.g. Frank, Gerschick and Miller, Leder, van Manen and Yoshida), we illustrate how various narrative practices inform this process and how they are framed by both the local and cultural conventions of telling. It is suggested that coherence is not an inherent feature of narratives but is both artfully crafted in the telling and drawn from the available meanings, structures and linkages that comprise stories.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e17ee956362154467fc6c522053120161471a701

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. Brett W. Smith
2. K. Douglas
3. D. Carless
4. A. Sparkes

In Safety Research

1. Brett W. Smith
2. K. Douglas
3. D. Carless
4. A. Sparkes
5. Tatiana Ryba
6. N. Ronkainen
7. Anna Kavoura

Citations in the corpus

• Living, resisting, and playing the part of athlete: Narrative tensions in elite sport (2013, result): “Conclusion This study reinforces research in sport and exercise psychology (e.g., Smith & Sparkes, 2002; Sparkes & Smith, 2003; McGannon & Spence, 2010; Phoenix & Smith, 2011; Busanich et al., 2012) which has shown that development, identity, and behaviour are not simply a product of psychological…”
• Narrative and its potential contribution to disability studies (2008, background): “Similarly, Smith and Sparkes ( 2002 , 2005 ) and Sparkes and Smith ( 2003 , 2005 ) made the case for a turn to narrative when exploring disabled bodies and impairments.”
• Sporting Spinal Cord Injuries, Social Relations, and Rehabilitation Narratives: An Ethnographic Creative Non-Fiction of Becoming Disabled Through Sport (2013, background): “In recent years, research has examined the experiences of people who have suffered a SCI through playing sport and are now disabled (Smith, 2013; Smith & Sparkes, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008; Sparkes & Smith, 2002, 2003, 2011, in-press a).”