A pragmatic and critical sociology of anti-doping

Patrick Trabal, Universite Paris Nanterre

The presentation will emphasize the value of using sociological models to come to understand doping practices among athletes and the reality of the implementation process of WADA’s anti-doping devices.

First, we will make use of a pragmatic sociology of risk (Chateauraynaud & Debaz, 2017) to examine the ways in which axiology, devices and realities are articulated in anti-doping related criticism. This will allow us to imagine the necessary social conditions so the anti-doping regulation could possibly change. We will question two elements: the reasons why doping is almost never analysed as a health issue; the conditions needed for the anti-doping actors' work to be different.

Second, we will question the normative activity of WADA using the sociology of work (eg. Heckscher and  Donnellon, 1994, Broussard 2005, Vatin, 2009, Champy, 2015). WADA's approach, which has become more prominent since the Russian doping scandal, consists of transforming all anti-doping activities into procedures. With the help of a sociological analysis on the effects of seeking "quality standards", we will argue that WADA’s approach (especially when it comes to public health policies), produces non-expected and unintended effects.

Finally, we will study the case of anti-doping education. Empirical analysis shows that WADA's policy, reflected for example in the International Standard for Education, tends to make very different realities opaque. These realities concern the meaning that actors give to their activity (in a Weberian perspective) and the diversity of practices and traditions as it has been shown by the sociology of health and by medical anthropology.

The conclusion will lead us to examine how WADA's policy and its understanding of harmonization and partnership redefine the action and responsibility of governments in the fight against doping.