Professional knowledge and shifting emplotments: a Bourdieusian analysis of practitioner discourse in elite sports medicine

This paper examines the perceived barriers to interdisciplinary healthcare provision for World Class Performance athletes in UK sport and moves to understand differences emerging between training, situated practice and sporting traditions. It represents on-going work which examines the changing landscape, discourses and power relationships found within medical professionalism in the field of sports medicine. As sports medicine becomes increasingly recognized as a medical specialism, the emergence of the sports medicine professional is resultant and serves to empower particular discourses. Of particular interest to professional practice is the scope for interdisciplinarity between the somewhat discrete professional fields and the associated blurring of knowledge boundaries and employments. Where this may be especially evident is when various specialists come together in an elite sport setting. Drawing on Bourdieusian philosophy, the analysis reflects upon the experiences of existing and potential sports medicine professionals and other stakeholders (e.g. Health Professions Council, National Governing Bodies, Performance Directors, and athletes) operating at the level of elite sport in UK. It examines notions of internal and external resistance, and compliance in situ