New essay on elite athletes

Illustration from the article

My essay “Bourdieu’s Field Theory Revisited: A Case for ‘National Signification’” has been published by Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, the peer-reviewed journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association.

The essay is an attempt to demonstrate the continued viability of Pierre Bourdieu’s apparatus to analyse contemporary elite sports. Specifically, the essay argues that such an analysis can underpin a shift in our approach to the self-presentation of elite athletes. Drawing on studies of Ada Hegerberg, Magnus Carlsen, Henrik Kristoffersen, and Halvor Egner Granerud the article shows how the term “national signification” can serve us better than the more common “national identity” when we describe how these athletes variously reference the nation in their efforts to position themselves and their practice.

Read the article through your university library. The abstract is available for free from https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2023.2189293

Posted 22 Mar, 2023. Modified 6 Jun, 2026.
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About Torgeir Fjeld
Torgeir Fjeld is a writer, publisher, and educational administrator, holding PhDs in Philosophy (EGS, 2017) and Cultural Theory (Roehampton, 2012). His publications include Introducing Ereignis: Philosophy, Technology, Way of Life (2022) and Rock Philosophy (2019), with articles in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, International Journal of Žižek Studies, and elsewhere. He serves as Head of Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts, Publisher at Tankebanen forlag, and Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Inscriptions, and has taught at universities across North America, Europe, and Africa. Torgeir Fjeld‘s latest talk was “Snow blind: on inoperativity and desolation in Askildsen, Fosse, and Naess” at 50 years of Scandinavian studies in Gdańsk, University of Gdańsk, Poland in November 2025. Here is section dedicated to poetry in translation. This page has a cookie policy.
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