ABSTRACT
This chapter exposes the framework and results of the method and contrasts it with an interactionist sociological approach. Defining doping as a danger threatening sport requires defining sport participation as a beneficial physical activity. In his 1963 book Outsiders about cannabis smokers, Howard Becker further develops the symbolic interactionist perspective of deviance. By 1948, just after the Second World War, French professor Maurice Boigey argues that sports activities have "some positive impacts on moral health". The professional career model considers the athlete after their sporting career is finished. A qualitative inquiry based on life histories allows researchers to start from the individuals' experience, to see the choices which constrain him or her, as well as to expose the processes and actors involved in the social construction of doping as a social problem. Indeed, an interactionist-inspired approach is essential for understanding how drug use of all types becomes normalized within particular sporting contexts.
