Negotiating Meanings of Work in Professional Sport (Pt2) – Prof. Martin Roderick – Meaningful Sport Series

Physical Activity Researcher

This is the second part of our conversation on the working lives of professional athletes with Professor Martin Roderick. In the first part, we discussed the changing meanings of sport-work from 'Labour of Love' to 'just a job' and the ways that athletes engage in identity work to keep a certain public narrative going about the nature and meaning of work as a professional athlete.

In this second part, we continue these explorations and ask questions about what kind of changes could or should take place in the ways that talent development and professional sport work is structured to prevent athletes from becoming alienated workforce.

Professor Martin Roderick's fascinating research has shed light on the dimensions of professional sports-work that are typically hidden from the public gaze. For example, he has analysed the subjective careers of athletes (the changing meaning, identity, and orientations of athletes during their careers); how athletes respond to uncertainty and exploitation they encounter in their work-lives; and the performative elements in how athletes narrate their experiences in the public sphere. In the podcast, Martin shares his thoughts on lessons learned and new exciting directions he has identified in this

Martin Roderick is a Professor and the Head of Department in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University. Martin's research has focused on the working lives of professional athletes (especially footballers), including issues of work-life balance, family life, and mental health. He is the author of The Work of Professional Football: A Labour of Love? as well as numerous research articles. In our conversation, special reference is made to these works:

From identification to dis-identification: Case studies of job loss in professional football

“I Just Want to Be Left Alone”: Novel Sociological Insights Into Dramaturgical Demands on Professional Athletes (co-authored with Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson)