Keynote Speakers

University of Stirling

Paul Dimeo

Paul Dimeo is an Associate Professor and Head of Sport at the University of Stirling, Scotland. He started his sport sociology education with an MA at the University of Leicester, followed by a PhD exploring racism in football at the University of Strathclyde. Since the mid-2000s, his research has focused on the historical development and policy issues related to anti-doping. He has written 3 books and many articles on this subject, has delivered projects for WADA and been a Fulbright Commission Scholar at the University of Texas, Austin.
Lecture Title: Does anti-doping policy support democratic governance and address inequality?
About his lecture: Taking the key themes of the conference, this presentation will discuss how ideas and ideals about democracy and equality can be utilised in the analysis of anti-doping policies and practices. More specifically, asking the question: does anti-doping policy support democratic governance and address inequality? Regarding democracy, the first discussion point is which aspects of anti-doping are open to wider stakeholder engagement and voting processes, and which are not, and what are the implications. Thereafter, we will consider different types of equality: sport competition, societal and economic. Anti-doping is designed to address sport inequality by reducing the unfairness caused by doping, but what does that mean for societal (in)equality in the context of challenging economic inequalities?