ABSTRACT
In this chapter I reflect on the usefulness, and challenges, of applying a figurational approach to examine what is commonly referred to as ‘doping’ within the sport of professional cycling. While the discussion is framed within the overall theoretical frame of figurational sociology the chapter focuses on several specific concepts such as advances in the threshold of shame, social constraints and perceived legitimacy, and habitus formation and mutual identification. Furthermore, I position this discussion alongside an analysis of the challenges faced in relation to the selection and interpretation of data around the issue of doping – essentially set of social practices that have become increasingly stigmatized over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
