THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN SPORTS (ICMPEDS) 2021 – ONLINE

The International Conference on Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Equality and Diversity in Sports (ICMPEDS) organized by GESPORT with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, will take place from the 14th to the 16th of July 2021.

The ICMPEDS Organizing Committee is carefully monitoring the situation regarding COVID-2019. We intend to follow the recommendations made by health ministries and governments across Europe and by WHO. We value above all the health of future conveners at the conference and the protection of populations at large, for this reason the conference is moved to a fully virtual format.

The conference will be an excellent forum for academics, researchers, practitioners, athletes, managers and professionals of federations, associations and sport organizations, and those otherwise involved in sport to share and exchange ideas in different areas of sport related equality worldwide.

We will keep you informed by email and post the latest information on this matter on the GESPORT website and social media.

Sport and its management continues to be a field where men and masculinity strongly prevail. This conference aims to investigate the complexities attached to the following questions: What does gender openness mean in the context of sport in the 21st century? What persists as gender closure in the same context? What are the gender cultures that signify sport continuing to be defined by regimes that resort to a dominant masculinity embodied in a strong and athletic male body?

Moreover, and albeit some exceptions, athletes, practitioners, decision and policy makers, and sports spectators are predominantly men. In this sense, gender discrimination and segregation are present in multiple aspects of sport. Some illustrations include:

a) male athletes have high salaries, more career opportunities, and get more recognition by society than female athletes;

b) management and leadership positions in sports organizations are mainly occupied by men, including in sports traditionally considered as feminine and which have become feminised (e.g. gymnastics and dance);

c) masculinised sports and its male athletes have much more attention and recognition from the media than female athletes;

d) sports journalism continues to be predominantly produced and managed by men;

e) some sports spectatorships cultures are marked by rituals and interactions that resort to masculine tribalism, often leading to aggressive and violent behaviours.

Gender discrimination in sport is somehow socially normalised and accepted through a discourse that essentialises the embodied sexual differences between genders. This gender discourse legitimises the exclusion of women in some sports modalities and traps female bodies in sociocultural constructions as less able to exercise and engage in sport, or as the second and weaker version of the ideal masculine body.

However, there are signs that the context of sport may be changing. The European Union and some national governments have made an effort to promote gender equality and diversity by fostering the adoption of gender equality codes/policies in different modalities and in international and local sports organizations. These new policies aim to increase female participation and recognition in sport, their access to leadership positions and involvement in the decision-making in sport structures. Additionally, the number of women practising non-competitive sport and as sports spectators have started growing, leading to new representations of sport and challenging the role of women in such a context. Finally, different body constructions and the emergence of alternative embodied femininities and masculinities are also challenging how athletes of both genders experience their bodies and sports practice. Yet, research is scarce about the impact of these changes/challenges in the sports context.

This conference will focus on mapping gender relations in sport and its management by taking into account the different modalities, contexts, institutional policies, organizational structures and actors (e.g. athletes, spectators, media professionals, sport decision makers and managers). It will treat sport and its management as one avenue where gender segregation and inequality occurs, but also adopt such as a space that presents an opportunity for change and does so as a widely applicable topic whose traits and culture are reflected in organizations and work more broadly. In this sense, the conference is interested in theoretical and empirical research work that may explore, but are not limited to the following issues:

• Women representativeness in sports modalities and in sport organizational structures in different countries;
• Women and management accounting in sport organizations;
• The gender regimes that (re)produce different sports policies, modalities, and institutions in sport;
• The stories of resistance/conformity of women that already occupy different roles in sport contexts;
• The challenges and impact of conventional and new body representations in sports institutions and including athletes of both genders;
• The discourses of masculinities in sport and its effect on women and men athletes;
• The emergence of nationalism and populist discourses in political and governments states and their impact on the (re)shaping of masculinity and femininity constructions in sport;
• The gendered transformations of the spectators’ gaze in what concerns different sports modalities;
• The effects of new groups of sports spectators on gender relations in sport;
• The discourses in media and its participation in the sports gender (in)equality;
• The impact of new technologies, and new practices of training/coaching in the bodywork and identities of athletes of both genders.

The audience of the conference can include, but is not limited to the following:

• Academics.
• Athletes.
• Bachelor, master and PhD students.
• Consultants of the International Olympic Committee.
• Policy decision-makers.
• Employees in sports organizations.
• Gender and LGBT community leaders.
• Managers of federations, associations and sport organizations.
• Sports coaches.
• Sports journalists.
• Sports judges.
• Sports teachers

1. Academic abstract submission

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted (excluding references, one page, Word document NOT PDF, single spaced, no header, or footers, Times New Roman, 12 points)

Abstracts can be written in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish.

Submitted abstracts must not be under consideration in full paper form by any other journals or publications. All abstracts will be selected through peer review.

Deadline for abstract submission is May 28th 2021. Notification of abstract acceptance will be by June 18th 2021.

For further information, please email gesport@unizar.es

2. Professional, personal and institutional abstract submission

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted (one page, Word document NOT PDF, single spaced, no header, footers or track changes, times new roman, 12 points)

The abstracts can be written in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is May 28th 2021, and the authors will be notified of their acceptance by June 18th 2021.

Informal enquiries can be submitted to the address gesport@unizar.es.

Conference date	July 14-16th, 2021
Deadline for submission of abstracts	May 28th 2021
Deadline for submission of abstracts notification of acceptance/rejection of proposals	Between May 28th and June 18th 2021
Registration	Begins from June 18th, 2021

The best abstracts will be selected, and authors will be invited to write a paper to be published in the congress book, on sports and gender equality and diversity. The rest of the abstracts will be published in open Access by PRENSAS UNIVERSITARIAS with a DOI and ISBN number and submitted to be indexed in major international bibliographic databases.

Conference chair

Luisa Esteban Salvador, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Conference co-chairs

Charlie Smith, University of Leicester, the United Kingdom

Emília Fernandes, University of Minho, Portugal

Gonca Güngör, Sakarya University; Turkey

Tiziana Di Cimbrini, University of Teramo, Italy

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Alberto Abarca Sos, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Alfredo Pérez Rueda, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Ana Gil Lacruz, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Ana Lor Serrano, IES Francés de Aranda, Spain

Ana Tortajada Remón, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Bertha Massiel Sánchez, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Cristina Corella Escriche, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Danilo Boffa, University of Teramo, Italy

Diego Álvarez Belenchón, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Encarna Esteban García, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Esther Edo Agustín, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Isabel Saz Gil, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Jatziry Santana Piedra, National Autonomous University of Mexico

Javier Pérez Sanz University of Zaragoza, Spain

Jennifer Moreno Moreno, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Laura Peiró Márquez, University of Zaragoza, Spain

María García-Figuera Rodríguez, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Marisa Fierro Blasco, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Marta Burriel León, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Marta Gil Lacruz, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Miguel Ángel Benítez Castro, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Nerea Gómez, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Nicolas Ferrer-Bergua Leese, Club de Rugby Teruel Mudejar, Spain

Roberto Ferriz, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Sonia Daloiso Martin, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Suo Jin, University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour (UPPA), France

Teresa Barea García, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Vicente Ceamanos Llorens, University of Zaragoza, Spain

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Alazne Mujika Alberdi, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, Universidad de Deusto, España

Ana Gargallo Castel, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. University of Zaragoza, Spain

Ángela Cenarro Lagunas, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Anna Di Giandomenico, Faculty of Political Science, University of Teramo, Italy

Carmen Aguilar, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Carmen Martínez Samper, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Christian Corsi, Faculty of Communication Science, University of Teramo, Italy

Conceição Nogueira, Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Elvira Burgos, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Fiammetta Ricci, Faculty of Political Science, University of Teramo, Italy

Gianluca Antonucci, Department of Business Economics, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara Italy

Gizem Karakas, Sports Sciences Faculty, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Turkey.

Gülten Hergüner, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Turkey

İpek Eroğlu Kolayiş, Faculty of Sport Sciences Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Turkey.

Isabel Brusca Alijarde, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Isabel Castillo, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia

Javier Zaragoza Casterad, Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Johanna Adriaanse, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Jorge Olmo Vera, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

José Luis Aliaga Jiménez, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

José Martín-Albo Lucas, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Luisa Pinto, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Marco di Domizio, Faculty of Political Science, University of Teramo, Italy.

Margarita Labrador Barrafón, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Natividad Blasco de las Eras, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Nuran Kandaz Gelen, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Turkey.

Pascal Glemain, University of Rennes II, France.

Pedrona Serra Payeras, Instituto Nacional de Educación Física de Cataluña (INEFC), España Regina Leite, Escola de Economia e Gestão, Universidade do Minho, Portugal.

Sevda Çiftçi, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Turkey.

Sonia Souto Camba, Faculty of Physiotherapy, University of La Coruña, Spain

Vicente Condor López, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Registration will be free. Tuition fees will be financed with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

Personal data will be safely stored and will be used by the Conference organization for issuing certificates.

Registration of participants without abstract

Main results obtained to date by the GESPORT research team will be presented at the conference “in English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish”.

For further information, please write to: gesport@unizar.es

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