The Role of Sport in the Process of Negotiating Identity: Dealing with the Stigma of Disability by People with Acquired Bodily Dysfunctions

Jakub Niedbalski

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.16.4.11

Authors

Jakub Niedbalski University of Lodz, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2803-7628

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.16.4.11

Keywords:

Disability, Body, Stigmatization, Sport, Identity, Symbolic Interactionism

Abstract

This paper is intended to present the role of sport in the lives of people with physical disabilities and to determine how practicing sports changes the way a person with a physical disability sees themselves. The paper reflects the experiences of people who started practicing sports, which allowed them to adopt an alternative perspective of their bodies and thus pushed them to negotiate their identities. Using the concept of Goffmanian stigma, I point to the sports activities’ usefulness in understanding the management of stigma by those dealing with a physical disability.

Taking into account the above theoretical references, in the research, which constitutes a foundation of this paper, I refer to the subjective perspectives of the researched individuals, rendering their points of view, and, based on that, construct and offer theoretical generalizations. Therefore, the research materials employed in this study are constituted by the personal experiences of people with physical disabilities who practice sports. All data have been gathered by conducting unstructured interviews with such people. The research materials were analyzed and interpreted following the procedures of grounded theory methodology.

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Author Biography

Jakub Niedbalski, University of Lodz, Poland

Jakub Niedbalski, a sociologist, is a research and teaching staff member employed in the Department of Sociology of Organization and Management of the Institute of Sociology, University of Lodz. He specializes in the computer-assisted analysis of qualitative data, qualitative research methods, the sociology of disability, and the sociology of sport. He researches the social activation of people with disabilities, as well as on the situation of families with people with disabilities, including entities and institutions supporting them. He is the author of several dozens of scientific publications devoted to the issues of disability, social assistance, as well as the qualitative research methodology.

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