re
:
think
Spring 2014
2
Waikato on the
centre stage
BY PROFESSOR ROY CRAWFORD
KIA ORA and welcome
to the Spring 2014 issue
of re:think, one of the
University of Waikato’s key
publications to highlight
our research, innovation
and entrepreneurship. In
this issue we focus on the
University of Waikato’s
contribution to the areas
of sport and health. The
Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions are developing
into the nation’s home of sporting excellence and
the University of Waikato is playing a key role in
supporting that development.
Since 2012 we have been the Tertiary Education
Partner of the Avantidrome Home of Cycling
near Cambridge. This relationship has allowed
the university to develop a range of research and
consultancy services related to sport generally, and
high-performance sport in particular. We have also
recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Chiefs Super Rugby team to work together
in a range of areas of interest such as education
and research programmes, student projects and
internships.
Many of our students competed with honour and
distinction at the recent Glasgow Commonwealth
Games and other athletes have benefited from
the work our researchers have been carrying out in
relation to sport performance.
The university applies an interdisciplinary
approach to the area of health and has strengths
in the areas of biomedicine, health economics,
demography, sport science and psychology.
Our highly regarded Traffic and Road Safety
Research group is moving to a new purpose-built lab
on campus, which will ensure it is able to expand its
important road safety work. We also have a number
of researchers who are working on improving the
durability of electronic implants, using physics to
help cancer treatment and developing a model
for health professionals to communicate more
appropriately with Māori.
In May I announced that this year would be my
last in the role of Vice-Chancellor.
In the 10 years I have had the privilege of leading
this University, I have continually been astonished
by the quality of people I work with and the results
they have been able to achieve.
I look forward to witnessing the continued
success of the University of Waikato, its researchers
and students in the years to come and wish them all
well for the future.
re:think is published by the University of Waikato
to highlight our research, innovation and
entrepreneurship.We welcome feedback, comment
or inquiry about any of the issues raised in this
publication. Contact us at
The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105,
Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
Phone:
0800 WAIKATO
(0800 924 528)
Email:
©The University of Waikato, September 2014.
ISSN 2253-4709 (Print)
ISSN 2253-4865 (Online)
About re:think
ON 14 October, 2012, Austrian skydiver
and BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner
stepped out onto a platform more than
39,045 metres from earth and jumped.
That leap set an array of world records.
Not only did he become the first
person to free-fall while breaking the
sound barrier and achieve the greatest
distance travelled and speed reached by
a skydiver, the event broke the record of
the most watched live streaming event
on YouTube with more than eight million
people around the world watching the
live footage. The jump was carefully
choreographed by Red Bull who invested
more than £9 million to create this
sporting spectacle.
According to Dr Holly Thorpe, author
of the new book
Transnational Mobilities
in Action Sport Cultures
, such events
reflect important new trends in the global
production and consumption of sport.
“As a result of transnational
corporations, events, and social media,
many young people are imagining the
world very differently to past generations,
and this is affecting their sense of space,
place, identity, politics and belonging,”
says Dr Thorpe.
The focus of her new book is the
transnational processes and various
mobilities in action sport cultures,
stemming from her own experiences
which she then explored in much greater
depth over a nine-year period.
Dr Thorpe is a former competitive
snowboarder turned academic based at
the University of Waikato. Her research
covered nine countries, 70 interviews
and included attending a number of
mega sporting events, including the
Winter Olympics in Canada and X Games
in France.
“I originally set out to write a book
about the lives of passionate action sport
AN AGREEMENT between two of
the Waikato region’s most successful
organisations is bringing the worlds of
sports and academia closer together. A
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
was signed between the Chiefs Rugby
Club and the University of Waikato in July.
Vice-Chancellor
Professor
Roy
Crawford says he was delighted to
formalise what was an already strong
relationship with the Chiefs and says the
University of Waikato is committed to
extending its research contributions to
include high performance sport.
Formalising the relationship with
the Chiefs also served to strengthen the
university's engagement and partnerships
both regionally and nationally, he says.
The MoU will see the two organisations
working together in a range of areas of
interest, with key priorities identified
as education and research programmes,
student projects and internships.
For the Chiefs, the main benefits
are likely to be in the form of in-depth
research into areas such as on-field
performance and fan behaviour, while
university researchers will benefit from
being able to study different areas of a
professional sporting organisation.
Chief Executive of the Chiefs, Andrew
Flexman says the MoU is an exciting
development for the two-time Super
rugby champions.
“There are a number of areas where
we are looking at more in-depth research
projects and I’m looking forward to the
first initiatives getting underway,” he says.
“The big challenge for us, as it is
for all live sports, is attendance so some
more research into fan behaviour
would be good. How we go about
attracting the next generation of fans is an
obvious area to look at.” There are also
likely to be opportunities for players to
undertake study to prepare for a life after
rugby, he says.
“We’re aligning our approach for
players, particularly younger players,
and giving them the opportunity to
study. The main problem is time,” Mr
Flexman says.
Agreement benefits Chiefs and university
NEW LINKS: University ofWaikato
DeputyVice-Chancellor Professor Alister
Jones with Chiefs players Liam Messam,
Rhys Marshall and Aaron Cruden.
participants and athletes who travel the
world in search of new experiences in the
waves and on the mountains.
“I was fascinated by their claims
that their participation in these sports
gave them a sense of belonging to global
cultures or ‘tribes’.
“But I quickly realised that I
couldn’t understand their experiences
of this ‘transnational imaginary’ without
considering the bigger context and the
role of transnational corporations, events,
media and the action sport tourism
industry,” says Dr Thorpe.
As well as examining the physical,
virtual and imagined travel practices of
privileged action sport participants, Dr
Thorpe was also interested in the various
(im)mobilities of less privileged youth
spaces of conflict, poverty and disaster.
Two case studies in her book include
Christchurch post-quake and Gaza.
In Christchurch Dr Thorpe found
people who’d previously had outdoor
lifestyles, who organised much of their
lives around their action sports.
“So this wasn’t people moving
globally, rather I was interested in
their local mobilities once their ‘place’
had moved.
“They’d had to look hard to find
alternative locations for their activities
– travel further to surf or climb, and
some skateboarders built a skate park
amongst the ruins. People converged
from all over the city to help build
and play in these spaces. These new
alternative mobilities gave them a
reason to stay and helped them to deal
with the stresses of life in this radically
changed city.”
Social media came into its own in
Gaza. As part of the younger generation
of technologically savvy Gazan residents,
the founders of the parkour group, PK
Gaza, knew the potential of the internet
for their parkour practices and for broader
political purposes. They use Facebook and
YouTube to interact with youth beyond
the confines of the Gaza Strip, raising
awareness of the conditions in Gaza.
And as well as offering a temporary
escape from the harsh realities of everyday
life, the young men strongly advocated the
socio-psychological benefits of their
everyday parkour experiences.
In contrast to many Western
assumptions about youth in this part of
the world, Dr Thorpe reveals how some
youth are tapping into transnational
networks and demonstrating remarkable
agency in creating sporting opportunities
that cater to their own and other local
children and youths’ physical, social, and
psychological needs.
SNOWBOARDER/AUTHOR: Dr Holly
Thorpe has explored trends in
action sports.
Action sports – crossing cultures
