Singing the blues: Are we making a difference?

Over the last three decades there has been tremendous growth in critical research concerned with sporting issues, health and physical education. Despite this growth, many of the prime socio-cultural issues that were critically examined in the 1980s remain firmly on the contemporary research agenda: indicating that these social problems and associated power relation issues are still of concern. Relatedly, there has been growing calls from a number of scholars urging critical researchers to make more of a difference. In this paper, I reflect on a project that examined the ability of critical researchers to make a pragmatic difference. The project invited 16 leading scholars from the overlapping fields of sport sociology, critical health studies and physical education to examine and reflect upon the impact that critical research has had with respect to select social issues or injustices. The critical researchers were encouraged (and some actively resisted) to use a tripartite framework promoted by Markula and Silk (2011) to examine the impacts of their critical research as related to the critical possibilities of qualitative research: mapping, critiquing and strategies for social change. Through analysing the findings, I draw comment on the complexities of sociological research for making a critical difference and reflect on whether 'we' are making a difference.