Authors: Oumaya Hidri-Neys ¹

• 1 Textes et Cultures

In France, under the Anti-Discrimination Act of 16th November 2001, "no person may be excluded from a recruitment procedure (...) on the grounds of (...) age (...) gender (...) or physical appearance". Yet despite the existence of this anti-discrimination law, discrimination in recruitment persists. Seven surveys carried out over the last fifteen years have shed light on the sociological mechanisms that contribute to discrimination on these three grounds in a sector of activity that offers a major source of jobs for students of Sport and Exercise Sciences programmes (STAPS) - companies trading in sports goods and services in large and/or medium-sized self-service retail outlets, such as Décathlon, Sport 2000, Intersport, etc. The results have been the subject of publications and research reports, but the conduct of research in this field, which is 'sensitive’ in many ways, deserved to be developed independently, particularly in terms of the ambivalent attitude of managers towards science in this sector. Encouraged by calls for introspection and the gains offered by reflexivity in sport social sciences of sport, this account of an investigation makes it possible to look back on experiences in the field, both successful and unsuccessful, and to open a reflection on the circulation of knowledge in so-called sports distribution. Examining the context, the researcher's identity and the possible instrumentalization of her scientific work helps to explain the difficult construction of areas of favourable interest between scientists and managers in this sector of activity. Analysis of the perseverance and renunciations made on the scientific front in turn reveals the obstacles to the translation and restitution of the knowledge produced. Finally, the way in which managers seize - or fail to seize - the knowledge produced and make use of it - or fail to make use of it - reveals the mechanisms that explain the practical fortunes and misfortunes of the knowledge produced in sports management.