Introduction

This book chapter sets out to outline the current landscape of qualitative research methodological challenges and opportunities in sport. It establishes the ‘state of play’, common trends and recent directions of the field and, similarly, provides insights into methods, methodologies and qualitative approaches that are emerging from within academia and industry. This chapter offers an overview of the writing project that is this book, its sections, aims and objectives. Further to this, the chapter contains an extended reflective vignette in the style of this book to illustrate the changing trends, patterns and approaches witnessed by a mid-career academic in the United Kingdom who operates across increasingly global boundaries and the industry–higher education divide. The end appendix contains a mapping of useful resources, a guide across a selection of qualitative journals in sport methods and methodologies and further resources to help shape our understanding of this research space.