Deviance, sport, and social control: A cross-cultural investigation of contemporary doping narratives

This study explores cultural understandings and responses to performance-enhancing drug (PED) use. My research question asked how sporting and cycling cultures inform larger social understandings of PED use. This work highlights the importance of a cultural understanding of PED use for developing sport and drug related policies. Informed by an interactionist epistemology that draws from cultural studies and cultural criminology, an analysis of North American and Belgian cycling and sport cultures was conducted. Data were collected using a mixed methodology involving participant ethnographies and a media analysis of PED related news stories. A participant ethnographic study of a cycling team based in Gent, Belgium and comprised of cyclists from Belgian and English speaking countries was conducted to access understandings and meanings surrounding PED use and the role of cycling in Belgian culture. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with cyclists and team personnel. This analysis offered points of comparison which provided deeper insights into domestic cycling culture. A participant ethnography of a North American cycling news journal was conducted to access the process and pressures that influence PED related news construction. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with writers and editors. A media analysis using Ethnographic Content Analysis was conducted to uncover reoccurring narratives in domestic PED coverage. These sites of cultural production were contextualized within and against larger institutional, economic, and organizational systems and relations.;Results indicate that English speaking cyclists viewed PED use primarily as a moral issue while Belgian cyclists viewed PED use as an inevitable component of professional sport. Lack of resources, fear of lawsuits and perceived lack of knowledge limited the depth and breath of PED related news production. Media analysis indicated that PED use is presented primarily in simplistic and morally charged language which constructs PED use as an individual and moral issue thereby minimizing the role of institutional and organizational structures. These findings highlight a continued ambivalence and anxiety regarding the proper role of PED use in modern society. Implications of this social anxiety will likely result in further reactive and punitive responses to PED use.