Sports Psychology in the English Premier League: 'It Feels Precarious and is Precarious'. (April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gilmore, Sarah; Wagstaff, Christopher; Smith, John
• Is Part Of: Work, employment & society. Volume 32:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 426
• Page End: 435
• Publication Date: 2018-04
• Subjects: elite sport -- football -- insecurity -- precarious employment -- precarisation; Industrial sociology -- Periodicals; Work -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; 306.36
• DOI: 10.1177/0950017017713933
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0170

Abstract

This article gives a rare account of the working life of a sports psychologist in the English Premier League, the elite division in English professional football. It shows how members of emerging professions such as sports psychology are a new precariat. John is more successful than many sports psychologists, but his job security is dependent on his continued ability to navigate managerial change: using his skills as a psychologist in the defence of his own employment but simultaneously keeping the (potentially sensitive) 'psychology' label of the work he does hidden until circumstances are propitious.