The debate about doping use outside elite sports in Finland got in full swing in September 2007, when the then Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin expressed his concern about doping use becoming more common outside elite sports. He even questioned whether doping use was becoming a national disease. Wallin’s question has remained unanswered, and the debate about doping outside elite sports has relied mostly on stereotypes and false
information (e.g. Seppälä & Karila 1996; cf. FST5 2011; MOT 2011)
In 2009, the Ministry of Education and Culture decided to carry out a comprehensive research project examining the size and nature of the doping phenomenon outside elite sports in Finland. This report illustrates, in a compact form, the essential findings of that research project finalized in January 2012 (Salasuo & Piispa 2012). The topic is relatively unknown in Finland (see Kinnunen 2003). Its social location is still being shaped, partly due to
the fact that there has been very little public debate about the subject and the amount of research data is still very limited (see nevertheless Karila 2003; Salospohja 2008; Raevuori 2009; Kainulainen 2011).
Taking doping out of context of elite sports means extending the research object from the effects of doping substances to a wider socio-cultural framework of substance use. In this framework, individuals make choices and communicate with one another on the basis of different motives, positions and roles. When
studying the issue, the various deliberate plans and pursuit of goals have to be taken into account. These are typically guided by intelligence, emotions, habits, traditions, the example of others and illusion or information about what is expected of human beings. Thus, the following elements have to be studied:
the consequences of action, the associations on which the action relies, the attitude of others, the motives of the research subjects and the conventional way to act (see Sulkunen 2003).
Hence, the definition of the research topic is considerably broader in comparison with the traditional medical approach of the Finnish doping research. In this study, with an aim to gain extensive knowledge to fuel the debate on doping outside elite sports, we aimed at answering the following questions: What is doping when it is not used to enhance one’s performance in elite sports? What is the cultural and social framework of doping, how the use of doping and the users themselves relate to the society as a whole, how frequent doping use is, what are the users’ motives and how various health considerations are linked to the phenomenon? To sum up, what is the social location of doping outside elite sports?
In this study, the doping phenomenon was cross-studied from the perspectives of as many actors as possible. We had very little prior knowledge of the research object, hiding deep in the shadows of the society. In order to tackle the research challenge we gathered extensive empirical data (see Charmaz 2006). The research approach was similar to Clifford Geertz’s (1973) thick
description to the extent that, as the analysis progressed, we aimed at a theoretically aware approach.
