Information control is a routine feature of social life, shaping how individuals and groups regulate what is revealed, concealed and made available to others, with secrecy representing one manifestation of these processes. However, methodologically, such practices are difficult to capture and examine. By examining how sports workers regulated access to information in an elite case-study coaching environment, this research extends interactional dramaturgical analyses of sports work by foregrounding information control. Participant observation and interview data collected during an 18-month ethnographic case study, totalling circa 60 h of audio data with coaching and performance staff (N = 4) and athletes (N = 11), were subjected to an iterative ethnographic analysis to identify and interpret interactional episodes involving information control through Goffman’s dramaturgical sociology. The aim of this work was to uncover the role and types of information control practices utilised to sustain interactional and relational goals. Analysis revealed: (a) different group configurations within the same coaching environment regulated access to information across shifting audiences; (b) a range of forms of information control, including secrecy, were maintained by these groups; and (c) maintaining informational boundaries required participants to strategically prepare for and manage their interactions with others. This research contributes to the critical social analysis of sports work by demonstrating how information control is accomplished through interactional work occurring within fluid configurations of performers and audiences, while highlighting implications for the preparation and development of sports workers.
Britton et al. (Wed,) studied this question.