Staff profile

Martin is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Board of Examiners in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences. He is a sociologist by training and spent his early career in the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester before moving to Durham University in 2004. He completed his Ph.D. examining the careers of professional footballers in 2003, which was subsequently published as a book in 2006, The work of professional football: A labour of love? This early research was motivated by a desire to improve the working conditions for all professional athletes, a desire that remains a driving force behind his ongoing research ambitions. Martin has maintained his longstanding research interests connected with the problems associated with work and careers in professional sport, but his more recent focus has concerned the inter-connections among family life, issues of work-life balance, and mental health.

Martin has undertaken research for various sporting organisations including UK Sport, the Professional Footballers’ Association, The Football Association, The Football Foundation and the Racing Foundation. He was awarded funding by the British Academy for a project examining the complexity of the public and private lives of professional athletes, illuminating how a public sporting figure status can gradually contaminate the ‘private’ person. His most recent funding is from UK Sport for a project examing how elite UK based Olympic athletes experience the Work Class funding Programme. 

Martin is Co-Editor in Chief for the prominent journal, Qualitative Research into Sport, Exercise and Health.

Research Interests

• Professional athletes’ lived experiences
• Work, identity and wellbeing
• Space, place and mental health
• The sociology of privilege

 

PhD Students

Martin welcomes applications from potential PhD students interested in (i) the work and careers of professional and elite athletes, with a particular focus on how athlete lifestyles can impact on mental health; (ii) celebrity and its impact on the working lives of athletes; and (iii) issues of risk, pain and injury in sport and physical activity, something about which he has a longstanding academic interest. 

Chapter in book

• ‘To thine own self be true’: Sports work, mental illness and the problem of authenticity
  
  Roderick, M., & Gibbons, B. (2014). ‘To thine own self be true’: Sports work, mental illness and the problem of authenticity. In J. Baker, P. Safai, & J. Fraser-Thomas (Eds.), Health and elite sport : is high performance sport a healthy pursuit? (pp. 149-162). Routledge.
• Introducing Sport in Films.
  
  Poulton, E., & Roderick, M. (2008). Introducing Sport in Films. In E. Poulton & M. Roderick (Eds.), Sport in Films. (p. xviii-xxvii). Routledge.

Edited book

• Sport in Films.
  
  Poulton, E., & Roderick, M. (Eds.). (2008). Sport in Films. Routledge.

Journal Article

• Perspectives and experiences of physical activity among autistic adults in middle adulthood
  
  McLeod, J., Roderick, M., Hanley, M., Riby, D. M., & Jachyra, P. (2025). Perspectives and experiences of physical activity among autistic adults in middle adulthood. Autism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613251360862
• Towards a sportive agoraphobia of professional athletes
  
  Roderick, M., & Hockin-Boyers, H. (2024). Towards a sportive agoraphobia of professional athletes. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 16(6), 519-533. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676x.2024.2378157
• When jokes aren’t funny: banter and abuse in the everyday work environments of professional football
  
  Hickey, C., & Roderick, M. (2024). When jokes aren’t funny: banter and abuse in the everyday work environments of professional football. European Sport Management Quarterly, 24(2), 383-403. https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2022.2124299
• Career transitions from the English Premier League: Cooling out the mark with possible selves
  
  Hickey, C., & Roderick, M. (2023). Career transitions from the English Premier League: Cooling out the mark with possible selves. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 58(6), 1050-1072. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902221142143
• ‘I just want to be left alone’: novel sociological insights into dramaturgical demands on professional athletes
  
  Roderick, M., & Allen Collinson, J. (2020). ‘I just want to be left alone’: novel sociological insights into dramaturgical demands on professional athletes. Sociology of Sport Journal, 37(2), 108-116. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2019-0135
• The Presentation of Possible Selves in Everyday Life: The Management of Identity Among Transitioning Professional Athletes
  
  Hickey, C., & Roderick, M. (2017). The Presentation of Possible Selves in Everyday Life: The Management of Identity Among Transitioning Professional Athletes. Sociology of Sport Journal, 34(3), 270-280. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2017-0018
• The Sociology of Sports Work, Emotions and Mental Health: Scoping the Field and Future Directions
  
  Roderick, M., Smith, A., & Potrac, P. (2017). The Sociology of Sports Work, Emotions and Mental Health: Scoping the Field and Future Directions. Sociology of Sport Journal, 34(2), 99-107. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2017-0082
• ‘The whole week comes down to the team sheet’: a footballer’s view of insecure work
  
  Roderick, M., & Schumacker, J. (2017). ‘The whole week comes down to the team sheet’: a footballer’s view of insecure work. Work, Employment and Society, 31(1), 166-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016672792
• Disciplinary Mechanisms and the Discourse of Identity: The Creation of ‘Silence’ in an Elite Sports Academy
  
  Manley, A., Roderick, M., & Parker, A. (2016). Disciplinary Mechanisms and the Discourse of Identity: The Creation of ‘Silence’ in an Elite Sports Academy. Culture and Organization, 22(3), 221-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2016.1160092
• Recovery from addiction and the potential role of sport: Using a life-course theory to study change
  
  Landale, S., & Roderick, M. (2014). Recovery from addiction and the potential role of sport: Using a life-course theory to study change. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 49(3-4), 468-484. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690213507273
• From identification to dis-identification: case studies of job loss in professional football
  
  Roderick, M. (2014). From identification to dis-identification: case studies of job loss in professional football. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 6(2), 143-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676x.2013.796491
• Domestic Moves: An exploration of intra-national labour mobility in the working lives of professional footballers
  
  Roderick, M. (2013). Domestic Moves: An exploration of intra-national labour mobility in the working lives of professional footballers. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(4), 387-404. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212442497
• An Unpaid Labor of Love: Professional footballers, family life and the problem of job relocation
  
  Roderick, M. (2012). An Unpaid Labor of Love: Professional footballers, family life and the problem of job relocation. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 36(3), 317-338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723512445283
• Disciplinary Power, the Oligopticon and Rhizomatic Surveillance in Elite Sports Academies
  
  Manley, A., Palmer, C., & Roderick, M. (2012). Disciplinary Power, the Oligopticon and Rhizomatic Surveillance in Elite Sports Academies. Surveillance & Society, 10(3/4), 303-319.
• "Lay Down Sally": Media Narratives of Failure in Australian Sport.
  
  McKay, J., & Roderick, M. (2010). "Lay Down Sally": Media Narratives of Failure in Australian Sport. Journal of Australian Studies, 34(3), 295-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2010.498094