(Re)Asserting organization as a lens in sport sociology: The meaning, workings, and consequences of rational design efforts

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to (re)assert the importance of an organizational lens in the socio-cultural study of sport. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate the often self-perpetuating and always value-infused nature of rational design, and the organizational processes through which problems, objectives, structures, roles, identities, and knowledges are (re)constituted and privileged in the context of sport. Drawing on an institutional understanding of organizational life, we examine Swedish sports' adoption of a new integrity platform as a case of rational design. Analyzing documentary and interview data, we demonstrate how positing organization as the object of knowledge allows us to unpack how, why, and with what effects, social issues and domains become subsumed into processes of rationalization and rational organizational design.